British premier says 24,000 migrants removed from UK since Labour took office

Speaking at the opening of the Organized Immigration Crime (OIC) summit in London, Starmer said this marked the highest return rate in eight years, which included four of the largest return flights ever.

Starmer also addressed the scrapping of the controversial Rwanda scheme, which was heavily promoted by the previous government.

He pointed out that the last government had spent £700 million on the scheme, but only four volunteers had been relocated to Rwanda.

"Even if the scheme had started working properly, only about 300 people a year would have gone to Rwanda," he said.

He went on to argue that it would have taken the Rwanda scheme 80 years to reach the 24,000 figure.

In his speech, Starmer revealed he was "shocked" to discover the lack of coordination between the police, Border Force, and intelligence agencies upon taking office.

"We inherited this total fragmentation between our policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies," he said.

"A fragmentation that made it crystal clear, when I looked at it, that there were gaps in our defence, an open invitation at our borders for the people smugglers to crack on. To be honest, it should have been fixed years ago."

Starmer announced in his first news conference since taking office the termination of the controversial Rwanda deportation policy introduced by the former Conservative government.

The previous government introduced the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill in December 2023, aimed at clarifying in domestic law that Rwanda is a safe country for deporting asylum seekers.

The legislation, which followed a Supreme Court ruling that deemed the scheme unlawful, mandates courts to disregard key sections of the Human Rights Act and other relevant British and international laws, including the Refugee Convention, that would otherwise obstruct deportations to Rwanda.