Starmer says world must ‘wake up to severity’ of threat posed by illegal migration
Good morning. Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation, which has 196 member countries, has a general assembly and, for the first time in 50 years, it is meeting in Britain. Keir Starmer will address the meeting in Glasgow and he is going to deliver a “wake up” call on illegal migration, saying that the world needs to face up to the scale of the problem and that tackling the problem needs to be internationalised. Britain cannot do it on its own, he implies.
According to extracts from the speech released in advance, Starmer will say:
The world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. I was elected to deliver security for the British people. And strong borders are a part of that. But security doesn’t stop at our borders.
There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the channel.
This is a vile trade that must be stamped out – wherever it thrives. So we’re taking our approach to counter-terrorism – which we know works, and applying it to the gangs, with our new Border Security Command.
We’re ending the fragmentation between policing, Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
In the headline of its news release, No 10 describes people smuggling as a “national security threat”. Rajeev Syal has a full preview of the speech here.
You might think some of this language might appeal to the Conservatives. Like Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, the new opposition leader, also believes that the previous government failed on illegal migration. But the Tories are saying Labour’s approach will not work because there is no deterrent. Badenoch is appointing a shadow cabinet today, and so there is no proper shadow home secretary in place this morning (James Cleverly is stepping down), but last night CCHQ put out this statement from a party spokesperson.
Keir Starmer’s announcement on tackling gangs will mean absolutely nothing without a deterrent to stop migrants wishing to make the dangerous journey across the channel.
It is a shame that Starmer has not recognised the extent of the crisis in the channel sooner, as he and the Labour party voted against numerous measures to stop the gangs while they were in opposition.
If Starmer continues to ignore the need for a deterrent to stop migrants crossing the channel, there will be more deaths in the channel as more and more migrants continue to cross it, he needs to get a grip of the crisis in the channel.
(Some experts in this field prefer to use the term irregular migration, not illegal migration, to describe people crossing the Channel in small boats because claiming asylum is not illegal under international law and, even though UK law says it is an offence to enter the country without proper authorisation, people who claim asylum don’t get prosecuted. But the government is using the term illegal migration, as the previous government did.)
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, is due to meet party staff at CCHQ this morning. She will also be working on shadow cabinet appointments.
11am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is speaking at the Interpol conference in Glasgow, ahead of Keir Starmer who is delivering a speech too.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, is due to meet the NFU leader Tom Bradshaw to discuss the budget plans to ensure that some farms are subject will be subject to inheritance tax.
2.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is opening for the government in the resumed budget debate.
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Key events
Yvette Cooper criticises ‘appalling’ comment about Kemi Badenoch retweeted by Labour MP
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has been doing an interview round this morning ahead of the PM’s speech to the Interpol general assembly later. In an interview with LBC, she condemned the Labour MP Dawn Butler for sharing a tweet describing Kemi Badenoch as “the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.
Cooper said she had not seen the tweet, which Butler quickly deleted. But she said:
The words that you have read out are clearly appalling and I would strongly disagree with them.
So, I haven’t seen the post. I don’t know the circumstances around it but I think we should congratulate Kemi Badenoch on her election.
I will continue to disagree with her on all sorts of issues, but, nevertheless, I congratulate her on her election.
Asked if Butler should be disciplined by the party over the tweet, Cooper said that was a matter for the whip.
Archie Bland has a good summary of the challenges facing Kemi Badenoch in his First Edition newsletter.
Badenoch makes Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson Tory co-chairs, and Rebecca Harris chief whip
Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, has already made some appointment.
Rebecca Harris has become the new chief whip. This was announced yesterday, but the outgoing chief whip, Stuart Andrew, who posted these on social media.
It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as the Conservative Party Chief Whip. @RebeccaHarrisMP is a great friend and a brilliant Whip. I wish her all the best in the role.
I would like to thank the Whips and the MP’s that have helped the Whip’s Office for their dedication and assistance in helping me steady the ship over the past three months.
At an uncertain time for our Party it has been challenging at times, but we have kept the show on the road and had some great successes.
And Badenoch has appointed two Conservative co-chairs, PA Media reports. They are Nigel Huddleston, a former Treasury minister, and Dominic Johnson, a hedge fund manager (he ran an investment firm with Jacob Rees-Mogg) who was given a peerage and made a business minister when Liz Truss was PM.
It is normal for the Conservative party to have two co-chairs – one an MP, focusing on presentation and party management, and another focusing on fund raising.
Often a new opposition leader announces the new shadow chancellor first but, as Dan Bloom explains in his London Playbook briefing for Politico, there is a reason why it makes sense to start with choosing a new chief whip.
News that Badenoch had appointed Rebecca Harris as chief whip emerged because Harris will be helping Badenoch make the other appointments, two people tell Playbook. One said: “There’s a lot of knowledge in the whips’ function as the HR department of the party — who’s reliable, who turns up, who is a good colleague.” Best behaviour!
“Who’s reliable, who turns up, who is a good colleague?” Badenoch should find out what the Tory whips used to say about her. As Eleni Courea reports, on these criteria, some of her colleagues would not rate her highly.
Starmer says world must ‘wake up to severity’ of threat posed by illegal migration
Good morning. Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation, which has 196 member countries, has a general assembly and, for the first time in 50 years, it is meeting in Britain. Keir Starmer will address the meeting in Glasgow and he is going to deliver a “wake up” call on illegal migration, saying that the world needs to face up to the scale of the problem and that tackling the problem needs to be internationalised. Britain cannot do it on its own, he implies.
According to extracts from the speech released in advance, Starmer will say:
The world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. I was elected to deliver security for the British people. And strong borders are a part of that. But security doesn’t stop at our borders.
There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the channel.
This is a vile trade that must be stamped out – wherever it thrives. So we’re taking our approach to counter-terrorism – which we know works, and applying it to the gangs, with our new Border Security Command.
We’re ending the fragmentation between policing, Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
In the headline of its news release, No 10 describes people smuggling as a “national security threat”. Rajeev Syal has a full preview of the speech here.
You might think some of this language might appeal to the Conservatives. Like Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, the new opposition leader, also believes that the previous government failed on illegal migration. But the Tories are saying Labour’s approach will not work because there is no deterrent. Badenoch is appointing a shadow cabinet today, and so there is no proper shadow home secretary in place this morning (James Cleverly is stepping down), but last night CCHQ put out this statement from a party spokesperson.
Keir Starmer’s announcement on tackling gangs will mean absolutely nothing without a deterrent to stop migrants wishing to make the dangerous journey across the channel.
It is a shame that Starmer has not recognised the extent of the crisis in the channel sooner, as he and the Labour party voted against numerous measures to stop the gangs while they were in opposition.
If Starmer continues to ignore the need for a deterrent to stop migrants crossing the channel, there will be more deaths in the channel as more and more migrants continue to cross it, he needs to get a grip of the crisis in the channel.
(Some experts in this field prefer to use the term irregular migration, not illegal migration, to describe people crossing the Channel in small boats because claiming asylum is not illegal under international law and, even though UK law says it is an offence to enter the country without proper authorisation, people who claim asylum don’t get prosecuted. But the government is using the term illegal migration, as the previous government did.)
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, is due to meet party staff at CCHQ this morning. She will also be working on shadow cabinet appointments.
11am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is speaking at the Interpol conference in Glasgow, ahead of Keir Starmer who is delivering a speech too.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, is due to meet the NFU leader Tom Bradshaw to discuss the budget plans to ensure that some farms are subject will be subject to inheritance tax.
2.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is opening for the government in the resumed budget debate.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. I’m still using X and I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I’m also trying Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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