Starmer vows to renegotiate Brexit to tackle migrant Channel crisis

Britain will seek a fundamental renegotiation of its Brexit deal with Brussels in a bid to tackle the Channel crisis, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The Prime Minister wants to reinstate the UK’s ability to lead investigations into people trafficking – and other crimes – on the Continent.

It opens the prospect of a major change to Britain’s relationship with the bloc – and will prompt questions about what Brussels may demand in return.

For the first time, Sir Keir revealed the scope of his aims to secure a new ‘security pact’ with Brussels, five years after the historic EU withdrawal agreement was hammered out during Boris Johnson’s premiership.

During a visit to an Interpol conference in Glasgow today, Sir Keir said: ‘I do think when it comes to security we can do better than do we've got, and that's what we are pursuing.

‘So I don't think the deal we got was a particularly good one.

‘I don't think we did as well as we should have done when it came to the question of cross border, crime and security, and that's why I want to improve upon it.

‘And that can be done at the EU level. I think there are additional things that we can do bilaterally with our partners, which we should be pursuing in parallel.’

Sir Keir added: ‘I'll give you one example - before the deal when we were in the EU we could lead on operations. At the moment, we can't.

‘We're very good, the UK. We've got very good intelligence, we've got very good law enforcement. We should actually be really proud of what we're doing.

‘I'm very keen to get the UK to a leadership position when it comes to the actual operations, particularly in relation to smuggling and putting people into boats across the Channel.’

The PM insisted his Government would retain ‘red lines’ in any renegotiation with Brussels.

‘We're not going back in, we're not going to join the single market, the customs union, we're not going to have freedom of movement,’ he said.

‘But I'm absolutely clear that when it comes to cross-border, crime, particularly people smuggling, the more we can share, the better, the more we can work together, the better.’

Sir Keir suggested that countries on the Continent are ready to see a new era of co-operation with the UK.

‘There is an appetite to work more closely with us on this because these are shared challenges,’ he said.

‘There’s no country in Europe that is immune from the problem of illegal immigration.

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‘The way it’s operated through gangs is exactly the same in different countries.

‘Therefore, all of the European countries and beyond have a shared interest in tackling this, because it’s very significant for all of them.’

The PM, a former top lawyer, said he wants a ‘joint agreement’ with Europe on ‘where arrests are going to take place, where prosecution is going to take place, where evidence is gathered, what the rules of inadmissibility are’.

He added: ‘We need to know which country is going to do what. That's the sort of arrangements I want to get back to.’

In a speech to the international policing organisation’s annual conference, the PM said people traffickers should be ‘treated like terrorists’.

He plans to introduce laws which will make it easier for police to strike earlier against smuggling gangs.

But he ruled out leaving international agreements like the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Tory leadership runner-up Robert Jenrick said he would abandon if he won power.

Sir Keir said: ‘We will never withdraw from the ECHR.

‘Those that say, “pull out of the ECHR” are going to make the job of our law enforcement when it comes to people smuggling much, much more difficult.’

The PM, who scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of his first acts in power, refused to set a timescale for any reductions in small boat numbers, which are up 16 per cent so far this year compared with the same period last year.

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‘I want to be clear, nobody but nobody should be making the journey across the Channel in small boats,’ he said.

‘That is not to be tolerated. And that is why we are doing so much work in this area.

‘I'm not going to put an arbitrary date or number on it, but we are absolutely gripping this.’

In a further move, ministers are examining plans to fast-track asylum applications and deportations, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

‘One of the things we're doing is getting the decision-making speeded up right across the board,’ she said.

‘We are also looking at ways in which we could develop a fast-track approach for predominantly safe countries, so that can be linked to much swifter returns as well.

‘Because the longer cases get stuck in the system, the more damaging that is and the more costly the system is, as well.’

Asked which migrant nationalities would face a fast-track process she said: ‘We are still developing that approach.’