Yvette Cooper launches Border Security Command to 'smash Channel gangs' as leader search begins

7 July 2024, 18:01 | Updated: 7 July 2024, 22:41

New Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to launch the Border Security Command as part of the Labour government's plan to crack down on gangs smuggling migrants across the English Channel.

The Home Secretary has set out plans for quick recruitment to find a leader for the organisation - saying that she wants to identify a candidate who is used to working in complex environments such as senior policing, intelligence or the military.

The leader will take up the role of Border Security Commander in the coming weeks.

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They will report to the Home Secretary directly and will direct the National Crime Agency (NCA), intelligence agencies, police and Border Force on how to break up smuggling gangs.

More than 13,000 migrants have already made the crossing this year.

The role is part of a package to tackle the crossings which was part of the election-winning Labour manifesto.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is also set to table new laws to give law enforcement powers likened to those used to fight terrorist cells.

Ms Cooper spoke to Graeme Biggar, director-general of the NCA, today to tee up the drive to disrupt the business model of Channel smugglers and work across Europe to do so.

Ms Cooper said: "Criminal smuggling gangs are making millions out of small boat crossings, undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. We can’t carry on like this.

"We need to tackle the root of the problem, going after these dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice.

"The Border Security Command will be a major step change in UK enforcement efforts to tackle organised immigration crime, drawing on substantial resource to work across Europe and beyond to disrupt trafficking networks and to coordinate with prosecutors in Europe to deliver justice.

“Work is underway to bring in a Border Security Commander to lead this work — and we will begin recruitment on additional capacity in the National Crime Agency immediately."

During their successful election campaign, Ms Cooper dismissed claims from her predecessor James Cleverly that migrants were waiting for a Labour government to make the crossing.

Speaking during an immigration debate on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Mr Cleverly referred to an article claiming migrants are waiting for a Labour government before crossing the Channel after Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to scrap the Rwanda scheme.

Nick probed the Home Secretary on this, saying: "Are voters really meant to believe that people living on sand dunes are looking at the polling of the next general election of the United Kingdom?

"Really?" he added.

In response, Mr Cleverly stated they "absolutely do".

"Unless you're going to accuse the journalist that went over there and spoke to them of lying?" he added.

He said people smugglers and those wanting to be smuggled "play very, very close attention" to a whole range of things.

"It is clear from these quotes there's a cohort of people currently in France who are waiting for Rwanda to be taken off the table before coming over here".

She will speak to her counterparts in European nationals and the head of Europol, a pan-European police force, to deepen ties and tackle the issue of immigration crime together.