Labour leader to promise to divert £75m to fund specialist force against smugglers using counter-terror powers

Keir Starmer will promise to rip up the government’s Rwanda scheme and divert £75m to fund hundreds of new specialist officers to tackle people-smuggling with new counter-terror powers.

At a speech on Friday in Dover – the home of Natalie Elphicke, who defected to Labour this week after criticising Tory failures on border security – the Labour leader will call the government’s plan “an insult to anyone’s intelligence” and say “the gangs that run this sick trade are not easily fooled”.

Create a new post of border security commander to oversee the unit, working across Europe and with multiple agencies on enforcement and intelligence.

Recruit hundreds of additional special investigators, intelligence agents and cross-border police officers.

Expand stop and search powers for use against those suspected of people-smuggling.

Use Serious Crime Prevention Orders, enforced on terrorists pre-conviction, to shut off the bank accounts and internet access of suspected smugglers.

Extend seizure warrant powers normally reserved for terrorism to include organised immigration crime.