Going into last year’s general election, Labor knew that the Rwanda program was a costly farce, and that Keir Starmer was going to abandon it. Like all the most dangerous fireflies, there was a true flickering light at the heart of this destroyer’s lantern. On the Channel crossings, as on so many other issues, Rishi Sunak was busy undoing himself; all the Opposition had to do was watch.
However, a more reflective Labor Party might have been haunted by the nagging thought that it would find itself, at an increasingly imminent moment, in Sunak’s position. Shadow ministers could then have paid more attention to how and why the then prime minister was failing, and perhaps considered what they would do instead. This is particularly relevant when you consider that figures reported this week show crossings are up 25% year-on-year in 2024, and by more than a third on the same basis over the six months since Labor took office.
Labor politicians might have noted, for example, that the reef against which the previous government crashed time and time again was the UK’s existing legal obligations, which conspire to make effective border control virtually impossible. European nations don’t seem to have this problem, despite their commitment to the same treaties — the first hint that Britain might be doing something wrong.
