Keir Starmer also revealed in his speech to a major international crime summit the government have returned 24,000 people with ‘no right to be here’ since winning power
Keir Starmer vows UK will ‘treat people smugglers like terrorists’
Keir Starmer has announced a “tough new law” to tackle illegal working as he opened a major international crime summit.
The PM said first time firms hiring people in the ‘gig economy’ – including construction and in beauty salons – will have to check they’re eligible to work in the UK under new laws to be put before Parliament later in the year.
He said: “While the last government was busy with their Rwanda gimmick, they left the door open for illegal working, especially in short-term or zero-hours roles, like construction, or beauty salons. While most companies do the responsible thing and carry out right-to-work checks, too many dodgy firms have been exploiting a loophole to skip this process, hiring illegal workers and undercutting honest businesses.”
Mr Starmer stressed that those who fail to comply with the new laws will result in fines of up to £60,000, prison terms of up to five years, and the potential closure of their businesses. It came as Mr Starmer opened the Organised Immigration Crime summit with representatives from over 40 countries in attendance.
The PM also revealed in his speech the UK government have returned 24,000 people with “no right to be here” since last year’s General Election. He claimed it would have taken the Tories’ failed Rwanda scheme “80 years to achieve” to achieve the same results.
In his speech the PM urged countries at the summit to go further in tackling vile people-smuggling gangs by treating them in the same way they would terrorists. He said that nations have got to “combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics and tackle the problem upstream”.
Mr Starmer added: “We’ve got to bring to bear all the powers we have at our disposal in much the same way that we do against terrorism. Now, before I was a politician, I was the Director of Public Prosecution in England and Wales, and we worked across borders, throughout Europe and beyond Europe to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives.
“In the process, we prevented planes from being blown up across the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice. So I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in exactly the same way.
“I simply don’t believe that organised immigration crime cannot be tackled. So we’ve got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the smuggling journey, from North Africa and the Middle East to the high streets of our biggest cities.”
And his government also announced £33million in funding to disrupt trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia, and Africa.
Countries including Albania, Vietnam and Iraq – from where migrants have travelled to the UK – will join the talks alongside representatives from France, the US and China.
The PM also said he was “angry” about the scale of illegal immigration around the world. Opening the summit on the issue at London’s Lancaster House, he said: “Illegal migration is a massive driver of global insecurity. It undermines our ability to control who comes here, and that makes people angry.
“It makes me angry, frankly, because it’s unfair on ordinary working people who pay the price – from the cost of hotels, to our public services struggling under the strain. And it’s unfair on the illegal migrants themselves, because these are vulnerable people being ruthlessly exploited by vile gangs.”
Representatives from tech giants, Meta, X and TikTok are also set to discuss how to tackle online promotion of irregular migration. The Home Office said it was launching adverts on the Vietnamese instant messaging app, Zalo, warning people of the dangers of people smuggling.
