The Tories made headlines and got photo-publicity on the Thames for Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s outline of plans for a dedicated border police.
The force, the Conservative MP said, will be created by unifying personnel and resources from agencies such as the Immigration Service, HM Revenue and Customs, SOCA, the Metropolitan Police’s Security Command and the Ports Police Forces. He also announced that Lord Stevens is to chair a new working group which will look at how best to implement such a force.
David Cameron said: "Any country that is serious about its security must have properly policed borders. We’re an island. It should be easier for us than it is for most countries. But under Labour, we don’t know who’s coming in or who’s going out. That is unacceptable and that why today we’re announcing plans for the development of a dedicated border police.
"Right now, our society is not properly defended against the drug dealers, people smugglers, gun importers and terrorists who find it all too easy to bypass the current system. No single organisation is responsible for performing this vital task. Instead we have at least six separate agencies, including Revenue and Customs, the Immigration Service, the security services, harbour police, SOCA, and the Metropolitan Police. All of these bodies have dedicated staff but they report through different organisations and are accountable to different Cabinet Ministers. This means that they often don’t communicate effectively with each other and lack overall coordination. The government’s big idea to try to deal with these problems is ID cards but this demonstrates that their priorities are completely wrong. ID cards would be ineffective and expensive. They would waste up to £20 billion without performing one of the most basic tasks of all – securing our borders. In short, ID cards are a bad idea. We are going to take a completely different approach. Instead of ID cards we believe the right approach is to have a fully integrated Border Police Force that will have one clear focus: enhancing the security of our country."
"The group will be chaired by Lord Stevens, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. As someone who has been Britain’s top policeman, he knows better than anyone how many of the problems faced by the police in our cities – guns, drugs, terrorism – have been made worse by our porous borders. He’ll be bringing together experts in their field to work on the detail of these ideas. "
Lord Stevens said: "I’m very pleased that David Cameron and David Davis have asked me to lead this working group to develop their border police policy. It is essential that Britain has secure borders and one element of that must be a dedicated and effective border police force. In the coming months my team and I will be working on the detail of these proposals – examining the powers and people that need to be brought together into this force. I hope that this will inform the Conservative Party’s thinking in this area and allow them to make our borders safe and secure."
Labour however denied that there was a need for such a force, saying that the agencies working on border policing worked together already.
