Robert Jenrick on Yvette Cooper's summit aimed at destroying small boats criminal gangs
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00:00Yvette Cooper said that the last two months since they've been in government have seen encouraging progress with significant seizures of boats and equipment in Europe.
00:08They're taking a grown-up approach to tackling this, aren't they?
00:11No. In fact, we've seen thousands of people crossing the channel illegally since Labour came to power.
00:17And they got rid of the one credible deterrent, which was the Rwanda policy.
00:21Yvette Cooper will meet the National Crime Agency and police chiefs today and they'll tell her what they told me when I was the minister,
00:28which is that although it's important that we do that work, it is not sufficient.
00:32You have to have a deterrent. We increased the funding for the National Crime Agency in this area by 50% when we were in office.
00:40And that is good, but it's not enough. You have to break the business model of the people smuggling gangs.
00:46And you do that by ensuring that if you come here illegally, you're detained and you're removed either back home to Albania or a country like that, if it's safe to do so.
00:55And I created that deal, or to a safe third country like Rwanda. Without that, it's open season.
01:02And that is what's happening now. Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have surrendered to the people smuggling gangs
01:08and are breaking the first duty of government, which is to keep our borders secure and keep the public safe.