Migrant gangs to be treated as terrorists under brutal new strategy involving MI5

Sir Keir Starmer will allow tens of thousands of Channel migrants to claim asylum, the King's Speech has confirmed.

Labour’s Border, Security and Immigration Bill confirms the Government will end the use of hotels for migrants by “clearing the asylum backlog”.

But ministers insist they want to “fast-track” deportations of those “coming from safe countries”.

Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda scheme on day one of his premiership and instead said he would smash the people smuggling gangs running the boats.

The move will save taxpayers £100 million in payments to Kigali, it is understood.

Responding to Labour’s Border, Security and Immigration Bill, James Cleverly said: “We don’t need another piece of legislation, we need a deterrent.

"Labour’s first action in government was to remove the Rwanda deterrent with no replacement, taking away our best chance of stopping the boats.

"And that has led to to over 1000 people arriving in just their first few days in office.”

Under Sir Keir’s plan for a new Border Security Command, more British investigators and spies will be based in Europe to catch the criminals, it is understood.

Sources have told the Daily Express that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s team is hoping MI5 intelligence officers will treat people smugglers like foreign spies and terrorists.

And counter-terrorism powers will be extended to cover organised immigration crime, including the power to search people suspected of being involved in people smuggling, close bank accounts, restrict their travel and trace their movements before an offence has taken place.

Stop and search will also be extended to the border. Sources said the changes could see MI5 bug smugglers' phones and trace their movements, this newspaper understands.

The Government also wants to clamp down on those enabling smugglers to organise small boat crossings.

Sir Keir wants “stronger penalties in place” for a “range” of organised immigration crimes including offences such as enabling the advertising of smugglers and supplying crucial materials needed to cross the Channel.

The Government said: “Strong and effective border security is vital to protect our national security. Small boat crossings are undermining our border security and costing lives.

“Existing policies have failed to deter crossings or prosecute the people smugglers responsible, and our current asylum system is broken.

“The Bill will support our priority of secure and stronger borders and a properly controlled and managed asylum system by launching a Border Security Command to bring criminal people smugglers to justice, tackling criminal gangs who exploit migrants and fuel the small boats crisis, and clearing the asylum backlog to end hotel use and increase returns.”

On the asylum system, which is costing taxpayers £4billion per year, the Government said it will make it "more efficient and effective to ensure the rules are properly enforced by ending hotel use through clearing the asylum backlog, ensuring fast-track returns for individuals coming from safe countries and ending the failed and incredibly costly Migration and Economic Development Partnership to redirect money into the Border Security Command".

Ms Cooper has ordered a review into how the gangs operate because she believes there are more opportunities to disrupt the gangs.

Intelligence has been gathered on how the gangs operate, where they are based, the routes they take and how they communicate with migrants hoping to cross the Channel.

And utilising this information could give MI5 and the National Crime Agency more opportunities to infiltrate or disrupt the gangs before they reach the French coast.

Kevin Saunders, who led Border Force teams in Calais, warned during the election that Kurds waiting to cross the Channel had “come up with a name for Kier, which I think means ‘the friendly one’, because they all believe that he's going to be very good for illegal migration”.

The Prime Minister has refused to put a target or a timescale on reducing channel crossings.

The UK has already given the Rwandan Government £290 million under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.

Cancelling the deal will save “over £100 million in future payments” to Kigali, it is understood, alongside “tens of millions of pounds of additional payments for a small number of individuals to be relocated.”

The announcement of Labour's legislative plans on immigration comes in the same week estimates showed the population of England and Wales saw the biggest annual increase in 75 years, growing in the year to mid-2023 by almost 610,000 to 60.9 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The growth was primarily made up by the 1,084,000 people who were estimated to have migrated to England and Wales from outside the UK during that period. An estimated 462,000 people emigrated from England and Wales.