Slow boat to success

Drugs, guns, booze and now people. Smuggling's oldest trades just got a 21st century upgrade - and business is booming.

- TOM WATSON

The gangs running this racket are making billions, charging desperate people a fortune for a one-way ticket to misery.

There's no happy ending here. Just risk, fear and exploitation. Flimsy dinghies. Eighty to a boat. Packed like floating coffins. One slip and we could see the deadliest Channel tragedy since Zeebrugge.

The Tories had their shot. Nearly a quarter of a billion pounds poured into Rwanda and not one boat stopped-but 84,0000 people crossed after the deal was signed.

Now Labour is taking a different route. No stunts. No spin. Just the hard graft of shutting the smugglers down at the source.

This is about choking off the supply of dinghies, smashing criminal networks and hitting bosses who hire people off the books.