Keir Starmer Sends a Strong Message to Britain in His New Article—People Are Furious About His Words

The Prime Minister has written this article just for the readers of Derbyshire Live. 
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently spoke at a press conference in Downing Street. 

This week, the government announced a crackdown on immigration. Here’s what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has to say about small boat crossings and a new bill to prosecute people smugglers. 

Stopping small boat crossings is one of my top priorities. It’s an issue that affects the whole country, and I know people in Derbyshire want to see action now. That’s why one of the first things this government did was create a Border Security Command. 

While the previous government proposed ideas like the Rwanda scheme, we’re focusing on real solutions. We need to stop the criminal gangs behind people smuggling, not just distract from the problem. I used to be the country’s top prosecutor, and my job was to keep people safe. 

As Prime Minister, my goal is to keep the country safe. I understand how these gangs operate—they only care about money. That’s why we’re targeting their finances. We’ve introduced new sanctions to freeze their assets, stop them from traveling, and prevent them from advertising their illegal activities on social media. 

We’ve learned from anti-terrorism laws and are taking further action. This week, we’re introducing a new bill that will give police more power to prosecute people smugglers. We’ll arrest them before they can put people on boats. Under the new law, anyone handling items linked to people smuggling can be arrested immediately, so police don’t have to wait until boats reach our shores. 

We’re also giving police the authority to seize mobile phones to gather information about smugglers quickly. Additionally, we’re making it a crime to endanger lives at sea, to prevent more tragic deaths in the English Channel. 

We’ll work with international partners in Europe and beyond to catch these criminals before they reach our borders. Arrests are already being made, making our country safer. 

So far, we’ve removed 2,580 foreign criminals—23% more than last year. We’ve also removed over 16,400 people who had no right to be here. This is the highest number of returns in five years, including the four largest return flights ever. 

This is all part of our Plan for Change. We’re making our streets safer, securing our borders, arresting criminals, breaking up gangs, and saving lives.