Yvette Cooper slams Government's failure in preventing small boats Channel tragedies

The shadow home secretary, speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, said Labour would work to decrease the number of boats able to make the crossing just days after four died when a migrant boat capsized in the Channel on Wednesday.

A 19-year-old has been charged in connection with the tragedy.

Ms Cooper, the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, said: “The problem with the Government’s approach is they’re not getting to the heart what’s happened over the last few years.

"These boats are dangerous. We’ve seen lives being lost in the icy waters of the Channel.

"And criminal gangs are profiting making huge amounts of money from what has effectively become a multimillion pound criminal industry along our border along the channel.

"And at the same time, we've had 12 years of Conservatives, a collapse in decision making by the Home Office in the asylum system. It's broken because they've broken it and not taking those decisions.”

The comments came as the shadow home secretary said she would expect to see lower immigration overall under a Labour government.

“The net migration figure overall is at unusually high levels at the moment because of Ukraine, because of the support for people from Hong Kong, rightly, and also Afghanistan. Now, we would expect those numbers to come down in future years and it is right that they should do so,” she said.

Asked if she would guarantee as Labour’s home secretary to cut the numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, Ms Cooper said: “I think everybody should be trying to cut the number of dangerous boat crossings, they are putting lives at risk.

“So that should be a joint objective for both Britain and France, other countries working together as well.

"You need a stronger agreement with France in order to do that. We’ve also called for a replacement for the Dublin Agreement to have an agreement around returns and family reunion with France as well.”

Asked again if the number of small boat arrivals would fall under a Labour government, she added: “I’m being very clear that this will be our objective with France and should be the objective of the British government and, frankly, should be the objective of everyone to cut those numbers of boats to prevent lives being lost.

“Everyone should be pulling out all of the stops to try and prevent those dangerous boat crossings, but in order to do that, you have to say you would have the major expansion of the National Crime Agency to go after the gangs.”

In response, the Home Office pointed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech addressing the tragedy in the Commons last week.

He said: “Our policing of the channel has been too fragmented, with different people doing different things being pulled in different directions.

"So we will establish a new, permanent, unified small boats operational command. This will bring together our military, our civilian capabilities and the National Crime Agency.”