Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to make a statement to the Commons on Monday on the deal she signed this week with the Iraqi government to tackle people smuggling gangs and protect border security. She is expected to contrast the government’s strategy to tackle illegal migration with the Conservatives.
Labour will also publish a plan next week to reduce both legal and illegal migration, but minister Pat McFadden told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips they will not be setting net migration targets.
He said the UK “will always need migration” but that has to be balanced with training the British workforce so “you’re not over reliant on immigration”.
Scrapping Rwanda policy was ‘catastrophic mistake’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the number of crossings since Labour came to power was 20% higher than the same time last year – although Labour says it is 15% more – and that is the “inevitable consequence of Starmer’s weak and vacuous policy on small boat crossings”.
He said scrapping the Rwanda policy – where small boat migrants would be processed in the east African country – “before it even started was a catastrophic mistake” and called for Labour to “urgently re-instate Rwanda”.
“Keir Starmer doesn’t care about stopping illegal immigration, which is why Labour voted against toughening up the law 134 times in the last parliament – including voting against longer prison sentences for the criminal gangs they claim to want to smash,” he said.
“Even the EU Commission president is now calling for offshore processing of migrants,” Mr Philp added.
Labour blames good weather for rise in crossings
Labour sources pointed out the number of people crossing the Channel since July is a third lower than the same period in 2022.
But they blamed good weather for more than 20,000 crossings under their watch, saying Home Office analysis shows 11 October to 10 November this year had the highest ever ratio of “red days” – when the Met Office said weather conditions would make crossings “likely” or “very likely”.
They said 26 out of the 31 days were classified as “likely” to see Channel crossings, while there were just three in the same period in 2023, meaning 6,288 people crossed this year during those dates compared with 768 last year.
A Labour source said: “Of course, the weather has played a significant part in the numbers, but we cannot stay in the position we’ve been in for the last six years where the security of our borders is left to the mercy of either the weather or the smuggling gangs.”
The UK’s net migration – the difference between people coming to live in and leaving the UK – for the year to June 2023 was revised up this week to 906,000, making it the new highest year on record.
The latest figures, in the year to June 2024, found net migration had fallen by 20% from the previous year to an estimated 728,000.
Last week, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party had got it wrong on migration, while senior Tory Robert Jenrick said his party’s “handling of immigration let the country down badly… and caused immense and lasting harm”, with the public having a “right to be furious”.
A Labour source said: “We will not repeat those same mistakes, and nor will we let the Tories forget them.”
