Plea in China
SIR Keir Starmer has made little or no progress in getting the French to stop boatloads of illegal immigrants from crossing the Channel.
So the Prime Minister has now turned his attention to stopping the dinghies which are used to transport them.
Most of the boats which are picked up by our Border Force are made in China.
Hence why Sir Keir has agreed an intelligence-sharing partnership with the Xi government.
Apparently, it will see both countries working together to track the sales of Chinese-manufactured crafts to international people-smugglers.
As with everything else he’s tried to “smash the gangs”, Sir Keir will have his work cut out.
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The highly-organised and utterly ruthless global networks who make millions from dinghy migrants will surely find a way around it.
And they will be aided by hostile states such as Russia — itself an ally of China — who use mass and illegal migration as a weapon against the UK.
As for China, are they really going to prove any more committed to helping the PM than the useless French?
We seriously doubt it.
’Ello, ’ello…’bye
SHABANA Mahmood’s wholesale police reforms this week included a pledge to put an extra 13,000 officers back on the beat.
Many will have assumed that meant MORE cops being recruited.
In fact, figures released yesterday show the total number has dropped by more than 1,300 in just 12 months.
That’s the biggest annual fall in almost a decade, driven mainly by many quitting London’s Met.
It means fewer officers responding to crimes or taking on thugs.
The Tories under Boris Johnson recruited an extra 20,000 cops by 2024 but many were given desk jobs.
The Home Secretary wants 13,000 to be sent back out on to the streets by 2030.
The public — fed up with an epidemic of shoplifting, phone snatches and a sense of lawlessness — want the same.
A losing bet
WHEN the Government was plotting its massive tax raid on betting, we warned it would hammer both the High Street and sports which our readers love.
Ministers largely carried on regardless, convinced that they knew best.
So far this week, the owner of William Hill has been forced to axe shops, and Coral has ended its sponsorship of a much-loved race at the Cheltenham Festival.
Both cited Rachel Reeves’ Budget.
We trust the Chancellor and all the left-wing lobby groups who encouraged her war on fun are happy now.
