SMALL boat smuggling gangs will use Sir Keir Starmer as a selling point to encourage would-be migrants to make the crossing, his opponents say.
The blast at the Labour leader came as 882 crossed on Tuesday — the highest tally in 18 months.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said traffickers would be delighted that his party has vowed to axe the Rwanda scheme and let arrivals claim asylum in what would be seen as an “amnesty”.
Labour hit back, accusing PM Rishi Sunak of presiding over the worst year our country has ever seen for illegal arrivals, while Nigel Farage declared a national security emergency.
The surge in arrivals on Tuesday took the number this year to 12,313, meaning 2024 is set to be the worst on record. It is tracking above the 29,437 who arrived in 2023 and the 45,774 in 2022.
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In the most blistering election onslaught yet, Mr Cleverly said Sir Keir’s plans would make matters worse.
He blasted: “A Labour government led by a man with a history of being weak on immigration, and the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme will be used as a selling point around the world.
“Labour’s immigration plan is just a rebranding of existing Home Office teams, and the scrapping of our key deterrent. The smugglers will be rubbing their hands with glee.”
With the election campaign so far dominated by the economy, the scenes of Channel crossings have put illegal immigration back, front and centre.
Sir Keir has promised a Border Security Command to flush out traffickers operating in Europe, as well as strike an intelligence deal with the EU.
He said yesterday: “The single objective is taking down the gangs that run this vile trade in the first place.”
His shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Far from stopping the boats, Rishi Sunak is presiding over the worst year our country has ever seen for Channel crossings.”
Reform UK leader Mr Farage attacked both parties, saying: “Rishi can’t stop the boats and Labour don’t care. This is a national security emergency.” His party has pledged to stop all small boat crossings within 100 days by sending Channel migrants back to France.
The PM said some days would be worse than others and defended his record. He said: “The choice at this election is about how we solve this problem for good and I’ve got a plan.
“If people come here illegally they shouldn’t be able to stay. We need to remove them somewhere else and if we can get that up and running then people will stop coming.”
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Meanwhile, the PCS union that represents civil servants threatened legal action against Defence Secretary Grant Shapps if he tried to involve his department in Rwanda deportations.
Meanwhile, the latest poll suggests Rishi Sunak will become the first serving PM to lose his seat as the Tories are reduced to just 53 MPs.
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LABOUR was last night accused of planning to give the vote to an extra eight million people.
Sir Keir Starmer would let prisoners, EU nationals and 16-year-olds have their say, deputy PM Oliver Dowden said.
Labour, which confirmed only that it would allow voting at 16, said: “This reeks of desperation.”
