Keir Starmer’s border plans, announced after a giddy week of political triumphs, attempt to address some of the deep structural problems within the Home Office.
Paid for with £75m from the existing budget for the Rwanda scheme, the plans echo recommendations handed to Priti Patel two years ago: employ a single border security head who is given direct access to the home secretary.
The border security commander would oversee a new body, with more investigators, which draws together the work of disparate agencies involved in disrupting people-smuggling gangs.
Starmer’s announcement will not satisfy all critics of Labour’s immigration policies. The party has not yet answered the demands of refugee charities by offering new safe and legal routes for asylum seekers, leaving many people fleeing war and persecution with no alternative but to take small boats to cross the Channel.
The Tories will continue to insist that Starmer offers little in the way of an eye-catching “deterrent” which is supposed to put asylum seekers off taking to the sea in dangerous small boats.
Those with knowledge of the Home Office say investigators feed their information into the permanent secretary, Matthew Rycroft. The creation of a border security command under a border security commander would allow those agencies a voice with the cabinet minister in charge.
One former insider said: “It allows the system to work at speed and takes investigations out of the permanent secretary’s power base, which can only be a good thing.”
The idea echoes plans drawn up by Alexander Downer, a former Australian foreign minister who was commissioned by Patel in 2022 to draw up plans for a rejigged Border Force.
Downer suggested that the Home Office should give key figures a direct reporting route to the home secretary to “ensure that the operational view is given equal representation to that of policy in departmental decisionmaking”.
The Labour plan has critics within the Home Office. One questioned whether another commander is needed in the department. It already has Stuart Skeates, a former general who is director general of strategic operations, recruited last year to oversee implementation of the illegal migration bill – but Labour says his job is very different.
Under Labour’s plans, the party would hire “hundreds” more specialist intelligence agents and cross-border police officers, who would support the border security command unit and work across the UK and Europe, split across multiple agencies, including the National Crime Agency, MI5, Border Force, CPS International and Immigration Enforcement.
They would be bolstered with new counter-terrorism powers including stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and the use of serious crime prevention orders before conviction to restrict access to the internet, banking and travel for those suspected of being involved in smuggling people across the Channel in small boats.
So far, so tough. But there is still no sign of Labour’s pledge to overhaul the much talked about “safe and legal routes”. Charities and respected Labour figures such as Lord Dubs have pointed out that the reason that so many people fleeing war and torture are coming to the UK by small boats – including those from Syria, Sudan and Iran – is because there are no viable alternatives.
On Friday, Starmer will announce the plans in Dover – the constituency of Labour’s new and controversial MP Natalie Elphicke – in a message to Rishi Sunak that immigration can no longer be used by the Tories as a vote winner.
The Tories, however, believe it will remain a key battleground that they can win. They say Starmer’s plan to scrap the Rwanda scheme, and process tens of thousands of asylum claims from people in line to be deported, will be shown to be a big mistake.
