Starmer’s immigration rhetoric follows familiar pattern of bold claims but few results, expert says

Keir Starmer is facing increasing criticism from opposition parties for failing to curb the number of people arriving in the UK on small boats. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” profiting from small boat crossings has followed a pattern set by Conservative-led governments of employing “bullish rhetoric” with little evidence that it can be delivered, an expert has claimed.

Madeleine Sumption, the director of the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, says the prime minister has repeated the mistakes of Rishi Sunak and David Cameron by making “bold claims with great certainty about things governments only partially control” .