Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been lambasted by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, after the first illegal migrants crossed the Channel into the UK since the change in Government.
In his first major move after winning a landslide in the election, Starmer scrapped the Rwanda plan and claimed it was “dead and buried”.
Amid new plans to create a new “border command” style deterrent, Jenrick criticised the Labour Prime Minister for “surrendering to the smuggling gangs” and getting rid of the “only deterrent” for illegal migration.
Speaking to GB News, Jenrick admitted Starmer’s decision was “not a surprise”, but is “very frustrated” by the unravelling of the Tory framework.
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has hit out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer for scrapping the Rwanda plan
GB News / PA
Jenrick told GB News: “I was not surprised, but very, very frustrated that the first act of this incoming Labour government was to scrap the only credible deterrent that we have, the Rwanda plan.
“It was working – we saw evidence in Ireland and we’ve seen anecdotally through what journalists like yourself are hearing in the camps in northern France.”
Delivering his verdict on Starmer’s plan to “tackle the gangs” as his deterrent for illegal migration, Jenrick fumed: “Keir Starmer has essentially surrendered to the people smuggling gangs.
“He has said it’s open season now to come to the UK. We have no deterrent, and we have no way of removing you.”
The first migrant arrivals have crossed the Channel for the first time today since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister
GB News
Jenrick also warned that the move by Starmer will create a fresh surge of migrant numbers this summer, as the new government begins to implement their changes.
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The former immigration minister explained: “I confidently predict, and I don’t do this with any pleasure, that this summer will see a huge number, a record number of small boat arrivals.
“And it will be because of the intervention, the first thing that this incoming Labour Government has done, which is to scrap our deterrent and the policy that they’ve announced.”
He continued: “It is hopelessly naive. Instead of having a deterrent, they said they’re going to create some new border command.”
Put to him that the Labour plan “might work”, Jenrick responded: “Well, it seems to be replicating what we already have.”
Jenrick claimed that Starmer has ‘surrendered to the smuggling gangs’ by scrapping the plan
GB News
Highlighting his previous appointment of Major General Duncan Capps as clandestine Channel threat commander in 2022, Jenrick told GB News: “I hired General Capps to do the job. Has he been fired by Yvette Cooper as her first act?
“This is not a credible way to secure our borders, and I’m afraid this is a foretaste for what’s to come.”
When asked his reaction to the Conservative loss in last week’s election, Jenrick admitted: “I’m desperately sad about what happened and the fact that good Conservative colleagues, public servants lost their jobs.
“But my greatest disappointment is that millions of Conservative voters walked away from us, and they did that not because we were too left wing or right wing, they did it because we failed to deliver for the British public on the fundamental things that we promised back in 2019.”
