Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to set a target on reducing Channel migrant crossings.
Ms Cooper admitted “we do believe that significant progress is needed” after October saw the highest number of small boat arrivals this year.
But she dodged questions over what an acceptable number would be as Labour intensifies its efforts to “smash the gangs”.
And Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice slammed Labour’s plans, declaring: “Meaningless twaddle from the Home Secretary. Labour will not stop the boats.
“Labour’s policy means more people dying.”
Asked if Labour’s plans would halve the current number of crossings the Home Secretary refused to be drawn, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We do believe that this can make progress and we do believe that significant progress is needed.
“No one should be making these dangerous boat crossings. They undermine border security, they put lives at risk and we have seen far too many lives lost.”
Ms Cooper said high numbers of crossings in October were “linked to the weather” but that “we’ve actually got to go after the criminal gangs at the heart of this, rather than it simply being dependent on the weather”.
Labour is pinning its hopes of “smashing the gangs” and creating a deterrent by making it harder than ever before to find passage across the Channel.
Calm weather led to 5,417 people crossing in 99 boats in October – the highest monthly total so far this year.
This is 1,225 more than the 4,192 migrants who arrived in Britain in September – the second-largest month of crossings.
In total this year, 31,094 people in 595 boats have made the crossing successfully, more than half while the Labour Government has been in power.
The Home Secretary insisted closer ties with European allies would help bolster attempts to reduce Channel crossings.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will, at the Interpol General Assembly, urge partner countries to treat people smuggling as a “national security” crisis that requires the same tactics as those used to tackle terrorists.
Sir Keir will say: “The world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. I was elected to deliver security for the British people. And strong borders are a part of that. But security doesn’t stop at our borders. There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.
“This is a vile trade that must be stamped out – wherever it thrives. So we’re taking our approach to counter-terrorism – which we know works, and applying it to the gangs, with our new Border Security Command. We’re ending the fragmentation between policing, Border Force and our intelligence agencies.”
And Ms Cooper told Sky News: “The Prime Minister has made clear we want to see significant progress made but we have to have those partnerships made and that is what we are working on, working with France on going after the gang networks that are operating in northern France, working with Germany on some of the supply chains, the way in which the boats are being moved across Europe in order to be moved to northern France.
“We should be stopping those boats before they reach the French coast in the first place. Working with Italy on illicit finance.
“So it is those international partnerships that we are building up. We haven’t had that action before so this is a huge step change in the way in which we are working on international law enforcement to go after the gangs.”
Ms Cooper has said that the additional money announced today is new funding from the Budget.
She told BBC Breakfast: “It’s in addition to the £75 million we’d already talked about, which is only just starting to be invested now.”
Meanwhile, later this week the Prime Minister is expected to attend a summit of the European Political Community in Budapest where it is thought that migration and people smuggling will feature on the agenda.
Along with the investment in the Border Security Command, the Prime Minister will announce a £6 million increase in the UK’s support for Interpol as it tackles global organised crime.
The Government will also provide £24 million to tackle serious international crime affecting the UK, including drugs, firearms and fraud, particularly in the Western Balkans.
