Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

Starmer’s plan to stop the boats might not be what it seems

A group of migrants arrive on the shores of Britain (Getty Images)

It comes as a relief to learn that Keir Starmer doesn’t really believe setting up a new security organisation to ‘smash the gangs’ will stop illegal immigration in small boats.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper goes around parroting the phrase as if saying it and doing it were the very same thing. It also got Labour through the election – mainly thanks to the Tories never having made their Rwanda plan operational. Yet now it has emerged that increasing the quantity of gold braid and epaulettes via the creation of a new ‘Border Security Command’ is not the only game in town for the Prime Minister.

That plan involves doing the very thing that the Tories spent the election accusing him of lining up

It has been reported by the Times that Starmer will hold a meeting on illegal immigration with Italian premier Giorgia Meloni in the margins of a gathering of the European Political Community (EPC) on Thursday.

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