Cooper demands “comprehensive action” on smugglers after four die in Channel

Yvette Cooper has demanded “comprehensive action” against people smuggling gangs operating in the Channel following the deaths of four people attempting to reach the UK in a small boat.

At least four people have died and 43 people have been rescued after a boat travelling across the Channel got into distress in the early hours of this morning.

Suella Braverman delivered a statement on the tragedy in parliament this afternoon. The Home Secretary told MPs that crossing the Channel in “unseaworthy vessels” is a “lethally dangerous endeavour”.

“It is for this reason above all that we are working so hard to destroy the business model of the people smugglers – evil, organised criminals who treat human beings as cargo,” she said.

Responding to the statement, Cooper said: “The responsibility for the lives that have been lost in the Channel lies with the criminal gangs. They need to be caught, they need to be prosecuted, they need to be jailed for the loss of life in the cold sea. And we need comprehensive action.”

The Shadow Home Secretary argued that it was a “brutal truth” that gangs have profited from the lives lost today, stressing: “Day after day, week after week, criminal gangs are putting lives at risk for money.”

Cooper called on both the UK and French governments to act to stop the boat crossings, adding that the “other brutal truth” was that the UK and France have “failed” to stop the gangs “proliferating around the Channel”.

“The action against those gangs has been too weak. There have been barely any prosecutions or convictions and barely any inroads into the smuggler gangs,” the Labour frontbencher said.

She added: “It was barely more than a year ago that 27 lives were lost when a boat went down. And all of us have warned, all of us have feared, that it was just a matter of time before more lives were lost.”

At least 27 people died when a boat crossing the Channel sank in November 2021, in what the International Organisation for Migration said was the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.

Braverman said today’s tragedy was a “sobering reminder” of why the government needs to stop the crossings. She added: “People do not need to seek asylum if they are already in a safe country. It is vital, literally vital, that we end the illegal crossings in the Channel.”

Rishi Sunak set out a five-point plan to crack down on crossings in a statement to MPs on Tuesday, during which he described the UK’s asylum system as “designed for a different era”.

The Prime Minister said many people arriving in small boats originate from “fundamentally safe countries or travel through safe countries”. He added that many of the journeys are “co-ordinated by ruthless, organised criminals”, telling MPs: “Unless we act now and decisively, this will only get worse.”

Among the measures announced by the Prime Minister was a “new, permanent, unified small boats operational command” to bring together military and civilian capabilities and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Sunak said 700 new staff would be recruited and NCA funding would be doubled.

Responding to the statement, Keir Starmer said: “Channel crossings are a serious problem, requiring serious solutions. We need leadership at home and abroad.

“We need a Home Office that functions effectively and we need to defeat the criminal gangs operating on the coast. But time and time again, this government has not provided serious solutions.”

The Labour leader argued: “Where there should have been solutions, we’ve had unworkable gimmicks.” He accused the government of attempting to “mask failure” and “distract from a broken asylum system”.