Small boat gangs have not been smashed – the numbers make that plain | Politics | News
Reaching British waters is no longer the hard part. Once here the balance tilts decisively in one direction. Accommodation at public expense, legal aid on request, years of appeals and slim chance of being sent home.
Deterrence collapsed as the legal framework weighed against enforcement.
Human rights law is no longer a sparingly applied restriction, but has become the logic that governs the system itself. With the ECtHR at the center of the decision-making mechanism, illegal migration ceases to be an aberration and becomes structural.
Unless this architecture changes, nothing the Labor Party announces will change the outcome.
Migrants are crossing the Channel because Labor refuses to deport them when they arrive. Only 5% of illegal entries have been removed since Labor took office. This is the pull factor and the crossings continue until deportations begin.
Labor limited themselves to cosmetic adjustments. Agreements that do not bring people back, gestures abroad that do not correct domestic sanctions, shifting responsibility externally without addressing the fundamental weakness.
The French aren’t on board with Labour’s comeback trick, the German deal is a farce and Starmer still won’t close the door.
Regaining control requires the willingness to take action. Only the Conservatives are prepared to do what is necessary.
Through our BORDERS Plan we will leave the ECHR and ECAT, ban asylum and other protection claims from illegal entrants, establish our deportation power, increase the number of deportations to 150,000 a year, end the appeals merry-go-round. This is the scale needed to regain control.
Chris Philp is Shadow Home Secretary
