Sir Keir Starmer said the UK’s failed asylum system has turned refugee camps into a “job-centre for modern slavery” as he outlined Labour’s plan to stop small boat crossings on Friday 10 May.
The Labour leader delivered a speech on the Kent coast in which he attacked the government’s current approach as “rank incompetence” and dismissed the Rwanda scheme.
Sir Keir also recalled a visit to a refugee camp on the outskirts of Calais in 2016 and described the situation as a “monumental failure”.
“People had been brutally let down,” he said.
“Not just in terms of the truly awful conditions but also because the failure of our asylum system had encouraged a false hope.”