Sir Keir Starmer hails arrest of suspected people-smuggling kingpin as he declares ‘there’s more to come’

PM Sir Keir Starmer yesterday praised the apprehension of a suspected people-smuggling kingpin.

The Turkish national, 44, was held successful Amsterdam connected Wednesday.

Sir Keir said his apprehension was a “significant portion of the jigsaw”.

He added: “I’m not pretending it’s the metallic bullet. Other steps are going to beryllium necessary, but this is simply a precise important step.”

The suspect is accused of storing dinghies successful Germany to beryllium moved to France. He faces extradition to Belgium for trial.

SINCE becoming Prime Minister, it’s nary concealed that I’ve been driving guardant efforts to boost collaboration with our European partners to tackle the challenge of amerciable migration.

We were elected with a mandate to alteration our state and unafraid our borders.

And we’re delivering connected our committedness of change.

Bringing bid backmost to our asylum strategy won’t conscionable safeguard our nationalist security, but present economical information too, arsenic we slash the magnitude of payer currency that was being spent to support the strategy from descending into chaos.

And let’s beryllium clear, this isn’t conscionable astir migrants being loaded into boats successful Calais.

This is simply a transgression web that spans the continent – supplying materials, facilitating transit, trading successful quality misery.

I volition not judge that these gangs can’t beryllium taken down. I cognize that if we absorption our resources and collaborate we tin interruption their business model.

Yesterday we saw that enactment successful action, arsenic the UK’s National Crime Agency worked intimately with the Dutch and Belgians connected an cognition that saw the apprehension of a antheral suspected of being a important supplier of tiny boats instrumentality to people smugglers.

This is 1 important step.

But our Border Security Command is present up and running.

And we’re arming them with the resources they request to get the occupation done, including 100 much officers for the NCA and backing to boost their method capabilities.

I’m assured that determination is much to come.