Labour's sanctions plan to stop small boat gangs is 'far-fetched', says expert

Keir Starmer's plan to use sanctions to help "smash the gangs" profiting from people-smuggling in the Channel seems "far-fetched" and any success might be difficult to evaluate, immigration experts have said.

- Rajeev Syal

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced plans yesterday to target corrupt police officers, fake passport dealers and firms supplying small boats for people-smuggling.

The first measures, including the names of individuals and companies, are due to be unveiled today and are seen as central to government plans to tackle criminal networks.

But the plans have been met with some scepticism from those who have previously examined the use of sanctions.

Tom Keatinge, the director of the centre for finance and security at the Royal United Services Institute, said the government must guard against "overpromising" when using sanctions.

"Talk of freezing assets and using sanctions to 'smash the gangs' seems far-fetched and remains to be seen. History suggests that such assertions hold governments hostage to fortune," he said.

Lammy said the sanctions regime was "the first of its kind anywhere on the planet" and a key step in ending "the status quo" where criminal gangs prey on "vulnerable people with impunity".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "We are leading, others will follow."