The former leader of Ukip has told GB News Britain needs a total overhaul of its border controls – and it should follow the example of EU nations instead.
Henry Bolton, a migration expert, joined the People’s Channel to weigh in on whether the UK’s current system is fit for purpose after Britain’s border security chief Martin Hewitt stepped down following 18 months in the role.
Sir Keir Starmer appointed the former police officer after winning a landslide in the 2024 General Election to curb the number of small boat crossings over the Channel.
While Mr Bolton said it was “no surprise” Mr Hewitt resigned from his position and “whoever took on that post was going to find it incredibly difficult”.
However, he argued the problem stemmed from the Government’s pick of the crop being a police officer.
He explained: “The Home Office tends to sort of lean towards police officers when they sort of seeking advice and expertise, understandably, on enforcement issues, but actually borders are a different domain.
“There’s a diplomatic angle, a national security angle that goes beyond policing, an intelligence angle that goes beyond policing.
“There’s all sorts of different dynamics and elements to border security, as I know well.”
Henry Bolton said it was ‘no surprise’ Labour’s border security chief has resigned from his post
|
GB NEWS/PA
The other issue, Mr Bolton outlined, was the Border Security Command not actually being a “command” in the traditional sense, and it was more of a coordinating body.
Instead of one whole body, the institution is made up of a number of agencies, including Border Force and the National Crime Agency, for instance.
He said: “If you have no authority, no command authority to coordinate, it’s your personality being projected into a mix of agencies that are very independent and fiercely defensive of their own authority and area of work.
“Of course, it’s important who heads the thing up, but it doesn’t really matter who heads it up if the entire structure and architecture is fundamentally flawed.”
BRITAIN’S BORDER CRISIS – READ THE LATEST:
Labour’s time in Whitehall has seen soaring numbers making the dangerous journey across the Channel
|
GETTY
Mr Bolton identified the UK was one of the few coastal states without an integrated border management strategy and is almost unique in its number of enforcement agencies on its maritime borders.
He continued: “You go to Sweden, you go to Norway, you go to Canada, you go to Iceland, you go to the United States, you go to Albania, you go to Montenegro.
“These are all countries with a coast guard that fills all the functions of fisheries, fisheries protection, immigration, counternarcotics, air pollution control, air sea rescue, all in one organisation.
“We have a plethora of organisations all operating different equipment, doing different tasks on our maritime borders. It’s chaos.”
Blasting the current organised state of Britain’s border controls, he told GB News: “The structures are wrong. The resources are wrong. The personnel are wrong.
“The reporting change is wrong. The coordinating command and control is wrong. I mean, it’s fundamentally flawed.
“It’s cobbled together over many years in many ways for and done by different governments for different reasons.”
“It’s not about the role being scrapped. We need a root and branch reform of the way that we patrol, surveil and police our maritime borders, and not just with immigration, but with the whole with pollution control, air sea rescue and so on and so forth,” he reiterated.