Good morning. As anyone who listened to Keir Starmer for more than about three seconds during the election campaign could tell you, Labour’s arrival has led to a clear shift in government messaging on Channel crossings: where once we stopped the boats, now we smash the gangs.
The government has put some money behind that one-liner, with a new border security command established with funding of £150m over two years, and new counter-terrorism powers for use in smuggling cases. Now Starmer is looking to build on that approach with deals that would see countries including Vietnam and Turkey, and the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, paid to do more to stem the flow of would-be asylum seekers. But whether any of this will be effective is another question.
