British Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeated his ‘smash the gangs’ pledge at an international crime summit on Monday, March 31st. High-profile delegates in London at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit heard the PM, alongside UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, reiterated the argument that dismantling organised human-trafficking networks is the key to resolving the problems they cause.
‘Smash the gangs’ has long been Starmer’s slogan in response to the migration crisis, reinforced by his message to summit that illegal migration is “never progressive.” While he attempted to popularise this approach in contrast to hapless predecessor Rishi Sunak and his forlorn ‘stop the boats’ campaign, at least 30,000 migrants have arrived from illegal crossings to English shores since Labour took office. As Reform UK leader Nigel Farage put it on X, formerly Twitter:
More illegals crossed in the first 3 months of 2025 than the same period in 2024.
He promised to smash the gangs, but he’s smashing Rishi Sunak’s record instead.
