Politics

Reeves Promises to Tackle Migrant Smuggling after Damning Investigation Surfaces

Published on June 14, 2025

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the Home Office will review the explosive undercover investigation by GB News presenter Patrick Christys, which exposed how easily smuggling gangs are helping migrants cross the Channel illegally. She promised action, saying it’s time for a proper crackdown.

Reeves was speaking live on GB News when host Bev Turner asked whether the government would take the channel’s findings seriously. “I don’t know whether you were watching GB News last night, Chancellor,” Turner said, “but Patrick Christys has done a brilliant job of tracking down migrant smuggling gangs. Can you guarantee that you will work with the evidence that GB News has acquired to smash the gangs? Because, frankly, we are making it look quite easy at this end.”

Reeves responded, “I will make sure the Home Office watches that, because we do need to crack down on those gangs. That’s why yesterday we announced £250 million for the Border Security Command to do just that. We can’t carry on as we have over the last few years.”

She doubled down on Labour’s promise to tackle illegal migration head-on, saying, “We need to stop people crossing the Channel, and we need to deport people who are here illegally. That’s why we will end the use of asylum hotels during this Parliament. It’s right to get people out of those hotels, and if they have no right to be here, they should be on a plane back home.”

Patrick Christys’ undercover investigation was nothing short of eye-opening. He posed as a Vietnamese migrant through TikTok and quickly made contact with smugglers who were all too happy to offer him a route into the UK. They handed over their personal phone numbers and switched to WhatsApp, openly confirming their smuggling operations from France.

He described the entire process as disturbingly straightforward, claiming they’d gathered enough damning evidence to build a solid criminal case – complete with voice recordings and precise locations of gang activity. “I am convinced that if we had five people in this office working on it full time, GB News would smash more gangs than the Labour Government,” Christys said last night.

Reeves, during her Spending Review, reiterated Labour’s commitment to ending asylum hotels once and for all, promising this will happen by the next election. She argued that doing so will save the taxpayer around £1 billion every year. She also highlighted that new funding will help reduce the asylum case backlog, speed up appeals, and make sure those who have no right to remain are removed swiftly.

Elsewhere in her interview, Reeves touched on the cost of living crisis, pointing out, “I recognise that things are still tough for many people, but in the first ten months of this Labour government, wages have increased by more than they did in the first ten years of the previous Conservative government. That’s real wages, after inflation.”

She also mentioned measures like expanding the Warm Homes Plan to help with fuel bills, free school meals for children whose parents are on Universal Credit, and extra support for childcare to help parents get back into work.

Reeves finished by stressing how stabilising the economy has already led to the Bank of England cutting interest rates four times in the past year. “For families with a mortgage or paying rent, that’s good news,” she said.

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