Editorial: If Keir Starmer is concerned about illegal migration then backing radical control​​​​​​s is best way to show it

A feature of the closing period of what will soon be 14 years of Conservative rule is the way in which many conservative-minded people feel it has failed on key issues of concern to them.

It is seen to have failed to tackle woke extremism, failed to control debt, failed to have properly reformed welfare and above all failed to restrain immigration.

The question of immigration into the UK is complicated and relates to multiple factors such as, indeed, unreformed welfare and the large economically inactive population in Britain, which means immigration is needed to fill jobs that would otherwise not get done.

Immigration is a key reason why people voted to leave the EU yet Brexit has had almost no impact on it, because so many of the migrant arrivals now come from outside Europe. Net migration is at shocking levels, equivalent to several million people per decade – overwhelmingly being at first entry into one of the most crowded countries on Earth, England. Only a small proportion of migrants arrive illegally via the English Channel, yet 100,000 people have come in that way, which seems to symbolise the lack of border control.

Disgracefully, the courts have thwarted serious efforts to stem this tide such as the essential Rwanda scheme, as in Northern Ireland the courts have played such a central part in the anti-state direction of legacy.

Now the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is saying that people-smuggling should be treated "on a par" with terrorism. In this he seems to want to sound not just concerned about immigration but sensitive to human rights activists who could not give a hoot about public concerns about immigration but who become agitated if they think exploitation or trafficking is involved. That Sir Keir feels a need to be robust on immigration is welcome but what is needed is his support for Rwanda-style radical solutions to this crisis.