Labour MP touts counter-terrorism laws to tackle gangs as 1,000s of migrants cross Channel | Politics | News

Using counter-terrorism powers to snare smuggling gangs will lead to fewer Channel migrant crossings, a Labour MP has insisted.

Dover MP Mike Tapp admitted the crisis won’t be “fixed overnight” as criminal gangs exploit calm conditions.

Some 1,776 migrants have crossed the Channel since Christmas Day, heaping fresh pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to create more deterrents.

But Mr Tapp said new powers, set to be announced in the upcoming Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill, will make it more difficult for smugglers to “act.”

He said: “It will be a part of what makes a difference, definitely, because I’ve seen the difference.

“And the disruptive techniques that can be used from those powers makes it difficult for terrorists to act, and therefore it will have the same impact on criminals.”

Counter-terrorism powers will be extended to cover organised immigration crime, giving officers the right to search people suspected of being involved in people smuggling, close bank accounts, restrict their travel and trace their movements before an offence has taken place.

Sources have told the Daily Express that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s team is hoping MI5 spies will treat people smugglers like foreign spies and terrorists.

This newspaper understands that this could see them bug smugglers’ phones and trace their movements.

French authorities confirmed three people died in the Channel on Sunday morning following an incident off the coast at Sangatte, near Calais, in which 45 people were rescued after struggling to board a small boat bound for the UK.

The incident follows four days of crossings, during which 1,485 people made the journey—the busiest Christmas period since records began in 2018.

Mr Tapp said deaths in the Channel are “a tragedy every time it happens”.

“Unfortunately, it happens far too often, and it’s something that we’ve heard many times in Dover,” he said.

“On the crossings in general, the problem we’ve got is the inheritance of open borders. So, in 2018, 400 crossed, and since then, over 150,000 have.

“When we ran the election and when we were elected into Government, we made it really clear that it’s a complex issue that isn’t fixed overnight, which is why it’s gone from 400 to 150,000 in such a quick period, because the incompetence of the last government left us with open borders.”

As outlined in the King’s Speech, the Government will introduce the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which aims to “modernise the asylum and immigration system” by creating new powers for law enforcement agencies to tackle, investigate, and prosecute organised immigration crime.

Mr Tapp said: “There is no quick fix that stops this. So that’s why there’s been so much work going on behind the scenes.”

He added: “But that’s already started, and we’ll see results of that as time goes on, but also next year, 2025, we will see the new Borders, Immigration and Asylum Act coming, which is likely to include extra powers, sort of counter terror-style powers for the Border Security Command to use.”

The latest disaster means that since the beginning of the year, 76 people have died while attempting to cross to England on makeshift boats organised by people smugglers.

Confirming that three men had died, Guy Allemand, the Mayor of Sangatte, said: “It doesn’t stop. It’s crossing after crossing. “There is no decrease in the numbers – it’s quite the opposite.”

Labour MP for Bassetlaw Jo White said requiring ID cards to get a job or use the NHS would act as a “deterrent” to migration.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “An ID card is something that you can share, for example, with your National Insurance number, we all have it from the moment we’re born, or if we’re legally entitled to work here, and that’s the way we access services.

“And I think potentially that may be a way of deterring more people coming across. But I think I also believe more has to be done across Europe and in countries like Iraq, where most of the gangs are based.”

Mr Tapp said: “ID cards is something in general I support, but it is the cost of that sort of initiative that probably holds us back, particularly in an economic picture we’ve got at the moment.”