Martin Hewitt’s appointment to tackle small boat crossings comes as PM heads to Italy to learn about its immigration policies
Keir Starmer talks with the new UK border security commander, Martin Hewitt, at an airfield near London. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
The appointment of a former police chief to head the new border security command shows ministers are making serious attempts to stop unofficial Channel crossings rather than the “gimmicks” of the last government, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said.
Ahead of talks centred on migration between Keir Starmer and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in Rome, Cooper said such international cooperation was the only way to make progress – but declined to say when the pace of arrivals might drop.
Challenged over criticism from rights groups and some Labour MPs to distance the government from Meloni’s hard-right administration, Cooper said it was very common for the UK to work with governments of other political leanings.
On Sunday night, Martin Hewitt, the former chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, who oversaw the UK’s enforcement of lockdown laws during the Covid pandemic, was named as the commander of the border security command.