Migration
Last month, the Prime Minister said his deal with the Emmanuel Macron would ‘turn the tables’ on the cross-channel people-smuggling gangs.
Today Home Secretary Yvette Cooper sounds a remarkably more subdued tone as the 'one in, one out' laws come into force.
“We never claimed that there is a single silver bullet on this," she says, declining to put a number on how many people she expects to be returned to France.
Miss Cooper says there has already been a 28 per cent increase in the number of asylum seekers being deported, but latest figures show more than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats in 2025 so far, a record for this point in the year.
Labour promised to 'Smash the Gangs' during the election campaign, but like Rishi Sunak with his 'Stop the Boats' mantra, Sir Keir Starmer is finding that coming up with the snappy slogan is the easy bit.
For all our sakes, we hope Sir Keir and the Government manages to get a grip on the matter. Because if he doesn't, there will be plenty of agitators looking to use the situation to their own advantage.
