Labour plans anti-terror style crackdown on people trafficking

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer has said people-smuggling should be treated “on a par” with terrorism, ahead of talks about a new security deal with Europe. 

Sir Keir will seek a provisional agreement with the EU’s policing body, Europol, for any future Labour government. 

Any deal to return migrants may require accepting migrant quotas from the EU.

Sir Keir said: “The government’s failure to tackle the criminal smuggling gangs orchestrating boat crossings is now so profound that I believe it needs to be considered on a par with the other three big security threats we face: climate change, hostile foreign powers and terrorism.”

Speaking to the Times, Sir Keir said Labour would seek an EU-wide returns agreement. “We effectively exited the returns agreement we were in and have never replaced it,” he said.

Starmer would not give a number of asylum seekers he would take under a deal. 

He denied that working towards closer cooperation with the EU was weakening his stance on Brexit.