Cliff Notes
- The government is initiating a £100m funding boost to enhance border security and combat people smuggling gangs, aiming to establish a “one in, one out” returns agreement with France.
- Home Secretary Yvette Cooper emphasised the investment’s role in strengthening law enforcement tactics to dismantle smuggling operations and target gang leaders across multiple regions.
- Critics from the Conservative party have dismissed the funding as ineffective and merely a political gimmick, alleging a lack of a substantial plan to tackle illegal immigration.
£100m border security boost – as govt vows ‘major crackdown’ on people smuggling gangs | Politics News
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The government has vowed to push for a “major new crackdown” on people smuggling gangs with a £100m cash boost for border security.
The investment will support the pilot of the new “one in, one out” returns agreement between the UK and France, and other efforts to crack down on small boat crossings.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said this new funding will “strengthen” the government’s “serious and comprehensive plan” to dismantle the business model of criminal gangs smuggling migrants across the Channel.
But the Conservatives have claimed the cash injection will make “no real difference”, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp branding the move a Labour “gimmick” and a “desperate grab for headlines”.
The funding will pay for up to 300 new National Crime Agency (NCA) officials, “state-of-the art” detection technology and new equipment to “smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel”, ministers say.
It will also allow the Border Security Command, the NCA, the police and other law enforcement agency partners to “strengthen investigations targeting smuggling kingpins and disrupt their operations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and beyond”.
The new investment comes as official figures show more than 25,000 people have arrived on small boats so far in 2025 – a record for this point in the year.
Ms Cooper said: “In the last 12 months, we have set the foundations for this new and much stronger law enforcement approach – establishing the new Border Security Command, strengthening the National Crime Agency and UK police operations, increasing Immigration Enforcement, introducing new counter terror style powers in our Border Security Bill, and establishing cooperation agreements with Europol and other countries.
“Now this additional funding will strengthen every aspect of our plan, and will turbo-charge the ability of our law enforcement agencies to track the gangs and bring them down, working with our partners overseas, and using state-of-the-art technology and equipment.
“Alongside our new agreements with France, this will help us drive forward our Plan for Change commitments to protect the UK’s border security and restore order to our immigration system.”
The £100m investment will also support new powers to be introduced when the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill becomes law, the Home Office said.
This includes the introduction of a UK-wide offence to criminalise the creation and publication of online material that promotes a breach of immigration law, such as the advertisement of small boat crossings on social media.
Research suggests about 80% of migrants arriving to the UK by small boat used internet platforms during their journey – including to contact agents linked to smuggling gangs.
While it is already illegal to assist illegal immigration, ministers hope the creation of a new offence will give police more powers and disrupt business models.
Mr Philp accused the Labour government of having “no serious plan, just excuses, while ruthless criminal gangs flood our borders with illegal immigrants”.
He said: “The British public deserves real action, not empty slogans and tinkering at the edges.”
