YVETTE Cooper today vows to launch a Border Security Command squad within the first 100 days of a Labour government, as she tells people smuggling gangs: “We are coming for you.”
The Shadow Home Secretary said she will bring the “full force of the law crashing down” on criminals behind the deadly small boats crisis.
In her first sit down newspaper interview since the snap election was dramatically called, Ms Cooper insisted Labour can now be trusted with Britain’s borders.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “Border Security Command will be created in first 100 days
“We will bring the full force of Government and the law crashing down on the criminal boat gangs and take back control of our borders.
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“This is urgent. Dangerous boat crossings are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.
“The new Border Security Command will be set up in the first hundred days of a newly-elected Labour Government.
“People smuggling gangs - we are coming for you.”
In a wide-ranging chat on the campaign trail in Wakefield, Ms Cooper savaged the Tory government’s record on illegal migration.
And she sought to draw a line on Labour’s past reputation for being soft on borders by vowing to get tough.
Her plan centres around a new Border Security Command unit which will have counter terror powers to stop the people smuggling gangs.
Hundreds of officers will work with other European countries to crush trafficking gangs.
She also wants to strike more returns deals to send illegal immigrants back to their home countries.
The fight to be trusted to control Britain’s borders is set to be a key election battleground.
And it is one of just a handful of policy areas where the Tories and Labour are at loggerheads.
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Labour wants to tear up the plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda.
And they would overturn the government’s ban on boat migrants claiming asylum in the UK.
Instead, they would let them claim asylum here in Britain.
Rishi Sunak and the Tories say this would mean an “amnesty for illegal immigrants”.
It would hammer British taxpayers by forcing them to cough up to house, clothe and feed these people, Tories warn.
But Ms Cooper denied Labour are a soft touch on illegal migration.
The Rwanda plan is a “con and a gimmick” which has cost UK taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds, she fumed.
She pointed out that not a single person has been deported to Rwanda yet, and even if flights depart only a few hundred illegal migrants would be sent there.
Over 10,000 Channel migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year alone.
“It was a con”. Ms Cooper said.
“All the government has been doing is writing cheques - cheque after cheque after cheque.
“And for a scheme that was only ever going to cover a few hundred people…There was no plan at all. So that’s not a deterrent.”
Ms Cooper said Britain has already handed over £300 million to Rwanda - and counting.
“You could literally send thousands of people on a trip into space for that”, she said.
The Labour big beast says she will bring down eye-watering asylum costs by arresting smuggling gangs and clearing the deportation backlog.
But pressed repeatedly by The Sun on Sunday, she refused to say when she would cut boat numbers by - only saying they “want to make progress as rapidly as possible”.
While her stinging criticism of the Rwanda plan risks being out of step with other countries.
Austria says 14 EU countries want to adopt a Rwanda style scheme.
Currently, Britain sends France hundreds of millions of pounds to crack down on Channel boat migrants.
But the payout has been slammed by critics who accused the French border force of standing back as gangs launch boats from the beaches.
Asked if the deal is good value for money, Ms Cooper simply said that under her Britain would carry on “working with France”.
The Tory government uses the foreign aid budget to help pay for the eye-watering costs of housing, feeding and clothing illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.
Last year, £4.3 billion of the aid budget was spent here at home on the crisis.
So, will Labour carry on using that cash?
Or will they cave to lefty campaigners and send the money abroad again?
This would leave the Home Office having to find billions of pounds more - just when the government’s coffers are already running short and taxes are sky high.
Ms Cooper again sidesteps the question - simply saying it is one for Rachel Reeves if Labour wins the election.
On legal migration - which stood at a monster 685,000 people last year - Ms Cooper says it is too high and should come down.
But she would not say if she would cap work or student visas to curb numbers.
Instead, she says Labour would pump resources into training Brits in jobs where we have vacancies.
“If you have got an increase suddenly in visas for a particular job or a particular occupation, the first question you should be asking is, hang on, what are we doing to get proper training here in the UK in those areas?” she said.
Labour will “link the immigration system and training in the UK”, she said.
“We think net migration should come down. You can see practical plans we are setting out.”
Labour have been out of power for 14 years, and have not won an election since 2005.
Ms Cooper - who is married to fellow Labour big beast turned Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls - is one of the only a handful of
Labour frontbenchers who actually knows what it is like to sit around a Cabinet table.
She was Work and Pensions Secretary under Gordon Brown.
Under Sir Keir Starmer, the keys to No10 are once again within Labour’s reach.
They are over 20 points ahead in the polls and the bookies favourites to win the election.
But with power so tantalisingly close, Labour are desperate not to “drop the Ming vase” and say anything that could harm their chances.
So, after years as being seen as the soft on borders party, can Brits actually trust Labour to tackle migration and keep our borders safe?
Ms Cooper insists they can.
“This in the end is a choice, isn’t it? It’s a choice election.
“You’ve had the Conservatives who have made grand promises. And instead, what they’ve done is just actually some of the opposite.
“What Labour would do is set out practical plans.”
