Prime Minister is right to get tough on boat crossings

Enabled by ruthless people smuggling gangs whose moral compass is presumed lost to Davy Jones’ locker, the number of people who perished at sea last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration, was 78.

And so, whatever tensions there are amongst the rank-and-file of the Labour party, however pungent the Prime Minister’s language might be to some on the back benches, there can be no doubt that those poor souls who were killed in the Channel by the small boat smugglers are at the heart of why we have a duty to talk tough and to be tough on illegal migration.

Of course, there are myriad good reasons why any Government is duty bound to tackle illegal miration; from pressure on services, infrastructure and welfare to clashes of culture, failed assimilation leading to community tensions.

But, ultimately, as Britain hosts more than 40 countries from around the world looking to thrash out a once-and-for-all international border force of sorts, it is for the sake of those who will also drown at sea, without a shred of remorse shown by those who commoditise human suffering for criminal gains.