Starmer pledged to smash the gangs – how many people smugglers have been charged? ...Middle East

Sir Keir Starmer has frequently vowed to “smash the people smuggling gangs” behind small boat crossings, but the Conservatives say prosecution figures reveal a very different picture.

The Prime Minister said last month that Labour was taking a hard line on illegal immigration across the Channel and the Government was increasing efforts to deal with the issue.

“We are ramping up our efforts to smash the people smuggling gangs at source,” he posted on X. “Hundreds of boats and engines: seized.

“Illegal working raids: up. Almost 30,000 people: returned.”

The Conservative Party, however, said data it had obtained appears to show prosecutions at a new low.

According to Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, the gangs have “never had it easier”, adding: “We’re now heading towards being the illegal immigration capital of Europe.”

Eleven small boats with migrants attempted to cross the English Channel without permission to enter the UK, over a seven-day period up to July 25, Border Force data shows.

A total of 638 migrants arrived to the UK during those seven days.

Jenrick said figures he obtained revealed there were 153 prosecutions for the most serious people-smuggling offence of assisting illegal immigration in the past 12 months.

And overall, he said 446 people were charged with an immigration offence between July 2024 and June 2025, which was one per cent of the 43,224 people who made the Channel crossing in 755 small boats during that time period.

However, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) described the figures in the Conservative Party press release as “severely misleading” as it conflated different data sources, time periods, and types of legal outcomes (charges vs prosecutions vs sentencings).

It said the press release had mixed calendar year, financial year and non-standard July-June periods, which are not directly comparable and undermine the validity of year-on-year comparisons.

Current MoJ-published data is only available up to December 2024 and the MoJ said any figures purporting to cover the period July 2024 to June 2025 would not be from MoJ sources and should be treated with caution.

The Ministry of Justice said, according to its data, 435 people were sentenced for an “Immigration Offence” or “Other assisting entry of illegal immigrant” in 2024, which was a 41 per cent increase on the 308 people sentenced for the same offences in 2017.

It also pointed out that criminal justice data on immigration offences may not reflect the full scale of smuggling-related prosecutions, as these offences can be charged under a range of different options.

What has Labour said about the figures?

A Labour spokesperson said: “Robert Jenrick can reinvent himself as many times as he likes, but he cannot rewrite history.

“With Labour in office, more people were charged with assisting unlawful immigration in our first year in government than in the entire time that Jenrick was in charge of the Immigration System.

“Indeed, we charged more people with that offence in our first three months than he managed in his last six.”

They added that if Jenrick was “truly serious about prosecuting dangerous people smugglers” he would not have voted against the new law to criminalise people who endanger the lives of others in the Channel.

Sir Keir negotiated a “one in, one out” deal with the French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month.

Read Next

Yachts are being used to smuggle migrants - but no one knows how many are arriving

The new pilot initiative, aimed at dealing with the small boat crossings, will see small boat arrivals being returned to France.

In exchange, an equal number of migrants will be allowed to come to the UK from France through a new legal route, as long as they are fully documented and subject to strict security checks.

The Government is also introducing legislation which creates a new offence of endangering lives at sea.

This could lead to the prosecution of anyone arriving in the UK on a small and unsafe boat who has been involved in intimidating or coercing others to take part in the journey.

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