Labour has unveiled a shiny new agreement with Germany, billed as their latest weapon to “smash the gangs” behind small boat crossings. The headline promise is to fix a loophole preventing authorities from seizing dangerous dinghies. Though this won’t be the last deal they’ll have to roll out…
Border Security Minister Angela Eagle hit the airwaves this morning to tout the deal, but her appearance on the Today Programme left little room for optimism. Eagle admitted that smuggling gangs will always adapt to evade government immigration measures, saying: “Just because you have to play whack-a-mole doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to take down organised immigration crime”.
Translation: expect lots of “crackdowns” that achieve little in the long-term. For every loophole Labour plugs, smugglers will find another. It’s set to be a very long five years of so-called “smashing the gangs”…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”