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Suella Braverman hits out at Labour's 'bureaucratic tinkering' as she warns of 'catastrophic' decision making
2 January 2025, 14:35 | Updated: 2 January 2025, 15:49
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has described the government's latest plan to tackle people smugglers as more "bureaucratic tinkering".
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Speaking on LBC, Braverman said: “Labour, frankly, have just put up a sign on the White Cliffs of Dover saying ‘Britain’s a soft touch, we’re a free-for-all, come on over’. That’s my opinion.
“Labour have demonstrated abject failure, wholesale weakness and I just have no faith whatsoever that the numbers crossing the Channel will fall anytime soon. There’s no deterrent.
“There’s a lot of hot air, there’s a lot of publicity stunts but ultimately it’s the numbers that count and the numbers are going rapidly in the wrong direction under this Labour government."
In November, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a deal with Iraq to tackle people smugglers including plans for some suspects to face restrictions on using mobile phones or computers.
Under the deal, authorities will also be able to apply for travel restrictions - ministers say it's about being able to stop them more quickly.
The deal was announced alongside a white paper on overhauling the visa system.
Braverman's comments come after new figures showed the number of migrants arriving in the UK in 2024 after crossing the English Channel in small boats was up by a quarter on the previous year.
Some 36,816 people made the journey in 2024, a jump of 25% from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.
Suella Braverman's critique on Labour's handling of migration
The total is down 20% on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022, however.
The last crossings of the year took place on December 29, when 291 people made the journey from France in six boats.
The Home Office recorded no further crossings for the remaining two days of 2024, amid blustery weather conditions.
It means 2024 saw the second highest number of arrivals in a year since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.
The total was comparatively low in both 2018 (299) and 2019 (1,843), before climbing to 8,466 in 2020, 28,526 in 2021 and a record 45,774 in 2022.
It then fell in 2023 to 29,437, before rising in 2024 to 36,816.
Caller Phil blames Suella Braverman and the Tories for the migration 'mess'
Sir Keir has put international co-operation with law enforcement agencies in Europe at the heart of his bid to cut the number of arrivals.
The Prime Minister previously said his Government "inherited a very bad position" with record numbers of migrants in the first half of last year "because the entire focus until we had the election was on a gimmick, the Rwanda gimmick, and not enough attention was on taking down the gangs that are running this vile trade".
But "if the boats and the engines aren't available, it obviously makes it much more difficult for these crossings to be made", he said.
His comments follow him previously vowing to "treat people smugglers like terrorists" as he announced extra cash for his new border security command.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said last month that the Government has a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings but refused to set a deadline on when a target to see the numbers fall "sharply" will be met.
She said the UK must "go after" the gangs behind the dangerous crossings and appeared to rule out creating more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers as a way of curbing the number of attempts when facing questions from MPs.
At his first press conference after entering Number 10 as Prime Minister in July, Sir Keir Starmer said the deportation plan was "dead and buried", with Labour swiftly meeting one of its manifesto pledges by scrapping the scheme.
