Yvette Cooper’s first big move as home secretary came on a Sunday, two days after Labour took office. She launched a Border Security Command, a body meant to “smash the criminal (people) smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings,” according to the Home Office statement carried by Anadolu Agency.
The idea was not new. Keir Starmer first proposed it in a speech in May 2024, when Labour presented it as the alternative to the Conservative government’s Rwanda asylum plan, which the party said would fail to stop Channel crossings and criticised as a waste of money. The manifesto then listed the command among its main commitments, with counter-terrorism powers to prosecute smugglers.
How it is meant to work
The command is to coordinate the work of Immigration Enforcement, MI5, Border Force and the National Crime Agency (NCA). A Border Security Commander, who will report directly to the Home Secretary, is to lead it. Officials said the commander will “provide strategic direction to work across agencies.” The Home Office said recruitment for “an exceptional leader used to working in complex and challenging environments,” such as senior policing, intelligence or the military, would begin on Monday, with the new recruit expected to start in the coming weeks. A Home Office team has been tasked with setting out the command’s remit, governance and direction.
New legislation is also being prepared. According to the department, it would bring in counter-terror-style powers and tougher measures against organised immigration crime. Cooper has ordered an investigation, with the NCA, into the latest routes, methods and tactics of smuggling gangs across Europe, to inform what the government calls a major law enforcement drive in the coming months. She planned further calls that week with European interior ministers and the director general of Europol.
“Criminal smuggling gangs are making millions out of small boat crossings, undermining our border security and putting lives at risk,” Cooper said. “We can’t carry on like this.”
Paying for it, and the Rwanda plan
Labour has said the command will be funded from money earmarked for the Rwanda scheme. Starmer has said he wanted to raise around £75 million a year from the cancelled plan. The government scrapped the scheme the day it took office, and Cooper ordered an audit of what had already been paid to the Rwandan government, to see whether it could be recovered. Starmer called the scheme “dead and buried,” and said he was “not prepared to continue with gimmicks.” Cooper called it a “con.”
The same day the command was announced, Channel crossings resumed after a six-day pause in poor weather. Pictures showed people in life jackets, some wrapped in blankets, being escorted off a Border Force boat at Dover, with children among those carried ashore. Downing Street admitted the summer would be “challenging.” Home Office figures showed 13,574 migrants had reached the UK across the Channel so far this year, a record for the first six months of a calendar year and 12% above the 12,119 recorded by the same point in 2023.
Cooper said setting up the unit was Labour’s first priority on migration, ahead of clearing the asylum backlog it inherited. A question mark remains over whether Labour will restore the right of Channel arrivals to claim asylum. Officials hinted it was possible, but nothing was confirmed.
Sources
- Border Security Command – Wikipedia
- UK launches new Border Security Command to fight illegal immigration
- Channel crossings: First migrants since Labour election victory arrive in UK
