New sanctions key to stopping smuggling gangs, insists PM

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has insisted new sanctions on smuggling networks are a "really important step" to stopping illegal migration into the UK.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Keir said using counter-terrorism tactics like freezing smugglers' bank accounts will allow the UK to "break" their business model.

Under the plans announced this week, the government will also be able to freeze assets of "those that help to get people into this country" illegally and launch travel bans.

Critics have argued the measures are too minor to stop small boat crossings.

But Sir Keir said: "If you're going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money."

The new sanctions plans are designed to disrupt the flow of money and could be imposed on companies and individuals aiding illegal migration, including those that manufacture materials for small boat crossings.

The proposed measures, which are yet to be finalised, would mean UK-based individuals and financial institutions would be banned by law from dealing with sanctioned groups.

The government will bring forward new legislation for the scheme, drawn up by government sanction experts alongside law enforcement and Home Office staff.

Many smugglers operate in an informal cash-based network, making it hard for the authorities to target their assets.

But it could be easier to sanction the supply chains helping the people smugglers, and the middle-men joining up the networks and helping to move asylum seekers across Europe to northern France.

The new plans were "very similar to the powers we have used against terrorists, which allows us to seize their assets, to stop them travelling, and to put them out of business."

"And so that is a really important step," Sir Keir said.

He also hailed the plans as "a world first".

The fact people smuggling is "so lucrative" is the "very reason we need to go for the money", he said.

"The people running this trade are only interested in the amount of money that they can make, and if you can break that model, you can reduce that organized crime."

The new powers would work in tandem with other policies announced by Sir Keir, including extra funding for the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the UK's new Border Security Command (BSC) to make more arrests.

"The power of the sanctions is you can do it much more quickly at a much earlier stage" than arrests, Sir Keir added - letting law enforcement stop offenders earlier.

Sir Keir said the new policy draws on lessons he learned as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008 to 2013, before entering politics.

He said: "As I learned as a chief prosecutor, follow the money, break the model."

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said: "Labour has no credibility on dealing with the evil trade in people smuggling.

"In Parliament they voted against tougher punishments and life sentences for people smugglers, abolished the Rwanda deterrent and campaigned in favour of the rights of dangerous criminals and foreign national offenders, over the safety of the British people.

"The last Conservative government legislated to tackle illegal migration and worked with international partners to bring criminals to face justice, disrupt their activities and secure arrests, prosecutions and convictions."

The prime minister was asked about the suggestion by President-elect Donald Trump's counter terrorism advisor Sebastian Gorka that the UK should repatriate ISIS supporters from Syrian camps, including Shamima Begum.

Sir Keir said any repatriation will be "determined on a case-by-case basis".

But the "driving principle will be 'What is in our national security?'" he said.