As prime minister, Rishi Sunak has been unable to “stop the boats”, his pledge on addressing irregular migration. Now, Keir Starmer is pitching an equally memorable slogan: “smash the gangs”.
Labour’s plan is to take a counter-terrorism approach to people smuggling. Starmer pledged that the UK would become “hostile territory” to smuggling gangs with the introduction of a new border security command.
Discussing smugglers as terrorists and part of organised crime is a popular view across the political spectrum. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak recently pledged to hunt down smugglers and traffickers across the world.
