“Stop the boats” was Rishi Sunak’s refrain, while “crush the gangs” is Sir Keir Starmer’s: both central promises of his premierships, both proving more difficult than the three-word slogan suggests .
As the new year begins, it is the long-standing problem of illegal cross-Channel migration to the UK that is weakening this government, as the last one did.
Today, Number 10 has tried to contain the criticism after the publication yesterday of the last stubbornly high numberswith a new advertisement aimed at disrupting the activities of human traffickers.
New interim serious crime prevention orders will give authorities quick access to powers which will stop smugglers from traveling, stop using mobile phones and close bank accounts.
Inside shadow secretary Chris Philp immediately dismissed the plan as “pretty ridiculous”, despite his own government’s failures on the issue.
His argument was that the Conservative Party’s strategy of immediately deporting to Rwanda those arriving on UK shores for processing would have eventually worked as a deterrent.
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Constant court battles and Labour’s decision to remove him as soon as they took office mean we will never know.
What we do know is that this is Sir Keir’s year to show that he can deliver on his election promise or face disastrous political consequences, as so many others did before him.
