Is it time for gunboats to help stop the people smugglers?

Curbing the power of judges in asylum cases to tackle the migrant hotel crisis is a typical Keir Starmer response to a problem.

The former director of public prosecutions would appear to see overhauling court procedures and the legal process as the answer to any tricky situation.

Yes, the proposed fast-track asylum appeals process is fine as far as it goes. But for a government confronted with a massive migrant crisis, opponents claim it's mere tinkering.

And welcome and worthy as it is, it isn't going to "smash the gangs", stop the boats or act as a powerful deterrent to the people smugglers plying their trade in the Channel.

As protests outside migrant hotels grow noisier and clashes between rival demonstrators become potentially violent, do we hear this cry from the voters: "What do we want? An independent commission of professional adjudicators! When do we want it? As soon as legislative time allows!"

Of course not.

Even those who don't agree with Nigel Farage's apparent indifference - in his Times interview this weekend, to asylum seekers sent back to Afghanistan being killed or tortured by the Taliban - are demanding bolder and more radical measures from the government.

And those who tire of the shadow home secretary Chris Philp's constant criticisms of the government would probably accept that attempts to stop the boats in the Channel are not just useless but farcical.

On a visit to the Channel earlier this month, Mr Philp said: "There's a boat full of illegal immigrants crossing right in front of me. The French warship is escorting it and making no attempt at all to stop it."

Later, assessing his trip, Mr Philp said: "The people-smuggling conveyor belt is now a round trip, paid for by British taxpayers.

"We were in the middle of the Channel, just on the UK side of the border, witnessing the French handing over two boatloads of illegal migrants, Border Force picking them out, providing a taxi service back to the UK."

So is Border Force fit for purpose? The Sunday Express reports that Martin Hewitt, Labour's Border Security Commander, is the highest-paid civil servant in the Home Office, with a salary of £200,000, more than the prime minister.

Some top officials have also received bonuses.

Philip Douglas, director general of the Border Force, received bonuses of up to £15,000 in 2024-25 on top of his £140,000-£145,000 salary.

Why, given the force's lamentable performance?

Given that Border Force clearly cannot cope with the small boat crossings, is it time to bring in the Royal Navy and some gunboat diplomacy, since the French government clearly is not helping to stop the boats?

It's happened before, after all.

In January 2022, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Royal Navy would take command of counter-migration operations in the Channel to deter migrant crossings and intercept boats before they reached British shores.

It was called Operation Isotrope.

But after squabbling between the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the mayor of Calais attacking a "declaration of maritime war", Rishi Sunak's government handed control back to the Home Office.

Is it time for a rethink? Earlier this month, the Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of the socially conservative Blue Labour group, urged the PM to use the Navy and drones in the Channel to stop small boat crossings.

In May, however, armed forces minister Luke Pollard slapped down the former Reform UK, now independent, MP Rupert Lowe in the Commons when he asked what assessment had been made of the Navy's capacity to intercept small boats.

"Defence assets are procured for defence tasks," Mr Pollard said, dismissively.

The Navy's primary role, he added, was to safeguard maritime security, including monitoring and shadowing foreign warships in British waters.

But at the very least, the Royal Navy could provide better surveillance, since Border Force seems to be failing in that role, and just the sight of naval vessels in the Channel could be a deterrent.

Sir Keir has put his faith in his "one in, one out" deportation deal with French President Emmanuel Macron and now in his asylum appeals shake-up.

The government's opponents claim neither will be an effective deterrent, however.

Farage is proposing "mass deportation" of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who come to the UK on small boats. Labour says he's "plucking numbers out of the air".

But with the PM's and Labour's poll numbers tanking as the latest official figures confirm the numbers of migrants and small boat crossings are increasing at a shocking rate, is it now time for a different approach?

Another Starmer U-turn, given the MoD's hostility to the Navy's involvement up to now? Gunboats, anyone?