Keir Starmer is too keen to find fault rather than offer help – as his people smuggling summit shows.

His approach to immigration, like so many of his policies, is wrong-headed -and symptomatic of his blanket reliance on punitive measures rather than addressing root causes.

His latest initiative—treating people-smuggling as akin to terrorism—demonstrates this tendency in stark terms.

No-one would argue that smuggling gangs should be allowed to operate with impunity, but Starmer’s plan prioritizes criminalization over solutions.

Instead of tackling why people are forced to flee their home countries, he focuses solely on punishing those involved in the process.

This is neither humane nor effective; it is a myopic attempt to look ‘tough’ on immigration while ignoring the systemic injustices that fuel it.

The reality is that people turn to smugglers out of desperation, fleeing war, persecution, and economic devastation.

Smugglers thrive in conditions where safe and legal routes to asylum are non-existent. Yet Starmer’s approach does nothing to expand these pathways.

Instead, it seeks to impose harsher measures, reminiscent of the draconian policies he once criticized under previous Conservative governments.

If he were serious about stopping smuggling networks, he would advocate for increased refugee resettlement, improved asylum processing, and international efforts to address the conditions driving displacement.

Instead, his government is throwing millions of pounds at border policing while offering nothing in terms of genuine solutions.

This punishment-first mindset extends beyond immigration policy: we’ve already seen it in his government’s disgraceful assault on disabled people through proposed cuts to disability benefits.

The plan to halve payments for new claimants and freeze existing support is a cynical cost-cutting exercise that will push thousands further into hardship.

People with genuine and severe health conditions now live in fear of losing the minimal financial support that allows them to survive.

Rather than investing in rehabilitation, job training, or better healthcare access, Starmer’s government is simply slashing benefits and hoping the problem disappears. It is a brutal, regressive, and fundamentally unjust approach.

Starmer’s leadership is becoming defined by an alarming lack of nuance.

Whether on immigration, social welfare, or crime, his instinct is to punish rather than understand.

The UK deserves better than a government that sees vulnerable people as a problem to be policed rather than individuals in need of support.

If Labour truly wants to distinguish itself from the Conservatives, it must abandon this reactionary, heavy-handed strategy and adopt policies that address real-world complexities rather than defaulting to simplistic crackdowns.

Until then, Starmer’s administration is nothing more than austerity in a different shade, hiding behind the language of law and order while failing the people who need help the most.