David Lammy has been speaking to Sky News Breakfast about a new “world first” sanctions regime to target people smugglers, choke off their funding, and stop small boat crossings.
Thursday 9 January 2025 08:56, UK
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We’ve just been speaking to shadow education minister Neil O’Brien, and we asked about the Tories’ amendment to call for a new inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal being voted down by MPs last night.
He told Sky’s Wilfred Frost that this is “not the end” of the push for an inquiry, and they will continue to propose amendments to force the issue.
He said politicians must “start to listen to the victims” and that we “do actually get to the truth about what happened in all these places” where grooming gangs operated.
He argued that local authorities do not have the same powers to investigate as an inquiry conducted by national government.
“But the truth is, there isn’t a good argument against having a national inquiry to properly join the dots, as Kemi Badenoch says, and to get to the truth,” he said.
Asked if he accepts that previous Tory governments failed grooming victims and their families, Mr O’Brien insisted that they “did a lot on this”, pointing to the success of the Grooming Gangs Task Force.
Pushed again on the question of if the Tories failed victims, the shadow minister admitted that they did.
“If you are a victim of this, and you’ve never had your chance to have your voice listened to, if there’s never been an inquiry in your area, then of course they’ve been failed, and they’re being failed right now. And we want to stop failing them.”
He continued: “When the victims themselves say, ‘no, we haven’t been listened to’ and there’s all these places, there’s never even been a proper look at this.
“And so if you say the previous government haven’t done enough of this, I agree. And it’s time to finally get justice for these people.”
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard are back for 2025 with their guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes.
How are global events like Trump’s moves, China’s policies, and the world economy shaping UK politics? Foreign Secretary David Lammy hopes to show Labour are in the driving seat – Jack and Sam discuss if he can.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules are under scrutiny, with concerns of higher taxes or spending cuts on the horizon, as she jets off to China with the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey. And Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to tackle people smuggling – is it realistic?
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You can send a WhatsApp to Jack and Sam on 07511 867 633 or email them: jackandsam@sky.uk
The foreign secretary is asked next about Donald Trump telling Hamas there will be “all hell to pay” if the Israeli hostages are not released by Hamas by the time he is inaugurated on 20 January.
David Lammy tells Sky’s Wilfred Frost: “I think that we are inching closer to that hostage deal that gets us a ceasefire.
“And I think that the issues now that are stopping us getting there come down to whether it is just a deal or whether it is, in fact, a ceasefire.
“And it’s our desire in this country that we do see an end to this conflict and we get to a negotiated solution going forward.
“And obviously there are issues about which hostages get released.”
He mentions Emily Damari, the last British citizen being held hostage by Hamas.
“This is an issue that the UK government continues to raise, both with the Israelis but also with those who are negotiating with Hamas. And I’m thinking here of the Qataris and the Egyptians, and I raised this with my Qatari counterpart just a few days ago.”
President-elect Donald Trump has refused to rule out economic or military measures to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, saying both are necessary for US national security.
Watch: Trump speaks to media about Greenland and Panama…
‘I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally’
We ask Foreign Secretary David Lammy for his view of the comments, and he replies: “I do think it’s classic Donald Trump.”
He explains that the president-elect is fresh off a vast election victory, having increased his support across nearly all demographics.
“He came in very clearly saying he was going to work for working people,” Mr Lammy says. “And, he sees American national economic security as centring that.
“That is why he’s raising issues, in relation to the Panama Canal, and I suspect to Greenland.”
He adds that behind Mr Trump’s “intensity”, there are “actually quite serious national security and economic issues”.
His French counterpart and the German chancellor have spoken out against Mr Trump for those comments, and we ask Mr Lammy if the president-elect has crossed a line.
The foreign secretary says the future of Greenland is a matter for its people, and adds: “No NATO countries have gone to war since the establishment of NATO. And I don’t envisage that.”
Pushed again on the military threats, he says: “I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally.
“I am in the business of interpreting what sits behind this, and there are some very serious national economic security issues. That’s the basis on which, Donald Trump has won his election.”
The US and UK will be able to “find common cause” on the goal of economic growth.
The foreign secretary is speaking to Sky News to tout his new “world first” sanctions regime to choke off illicit finance to the people-smuggling gangs that operate small boats across the Channel.
David Lammy tells us that it’s not just the Home Office that should be tackling this problem, saying the Foreign Office “does play a role”.
“When we’re returning people to their countries because they have no right to be here – that’s gone up 20%, 13,500 people returned. It’s Foreign Office officials often doing that,” he says.
“When we’re working with the national crime agencies in countries where people are passing through, to try and deter them, work with those countries to keep them there – it’s often diplomats at the centre of that.
“And here I want to use sanctions now to go after particularly the supply chains and the routes that people are doing.”
He says he wants to “go after those who are smuggling people and the supply chains that they rely on”.
Asked if he will be able to sanction states and leader who might inadvertently or intentionally be harbouring people smugglers, the foreign secretary says: “There may well be, sadly, leaders in countries who are behind this.
“Those who traffic don’t just traffic people – they traffic drugs and they traffic guns and equipment as well. And we do know that that sometimes involves politicians in different states.”
Measures to target those people include asset freezes, travel bans, and working with allies to do the same.
David Lammy is in the hot seat in Sky’s Westminster studio to take questions from Wilfred Frost.
He wants to discuss the new “world first” sanctions regime that he is unveiling today, designed to target people smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossings.
The foreign secretary will no doubt be asked about his previous disobliging comments about US president-elect Donald Trump, as well as Elon Musk’s attacks in recent days.
Watch live on Sky News, in the stream above, at the link below – and follow updates here in the Politics Hub.
Watch Sky News Breakfast live for free on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on the Sky News website and app or on YouTube.
The treatment of Jess Phillips over recent days tells me all I need to know about the epidemic of misogyny, abuse and violence against women and girls that still plagues our culture.
The domestic violence campaigner-turned politician, who has spent her career fighting for victims, has found herself the subject of abuse on an industrial scale over the past week that has put her in danger.
In dark moments, it has left her wondering whether she should give up frontline politics for good and go back to the women’s hostels where her work with vulnerable women and girls began.
Outspoken and a women’s campaigner, Phillips has long been a lightning rod.
But when the world’s richest man, who owns a social media platform with 211m followers, starts trolling you as a “rape genocide apologist” – complicit in a what he claims is a cover-up of the most disgusting and sickening abuse – that’s a different order of attention, and danger.
This week, the female politician charged with trying to protect the actual victims of these unspeakable crimes became subject to an avalanche of abuse – and threats – herself.
In this extra episode of Electoral Dysfunction, Jess Phillips sits down with Beth and reveals what she has lived through in the past few weeks.
Elon Musk accused the Labour MP of being a “rape genocide apologist”, putting her in the middle of a political storm.
As the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips also explains what the government is doing to tackle violence against women and girls.
👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈
Email us at electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.
By Faye Brown, political reporter
A Tory bid to launch a new national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal has been voted down by MPs amid criticism of “political game playing”.
MPs rejected the amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing Bill by 364 to 111, a majority of 253.
However, even if the Commons had supported the measure, it wouldn’t have actually forced the government to open the desired inquiry, due to parliamentary procedure.
Instead, it would have killed the government’s legislation, the aim of which is to reform things like the children’s care system and raise educational standards in schools.
The vote was largely symbolic – aimed at putting pressure on Labour following days of headlines after comments by Elon Musk brought grooming gangs back into the spotlight.
The world’s richest man has hit out at Sir Keir Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, after she rejected a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying this should be done at a local level instead.
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent
So can you stop people smugglers by lumbering them with sanctions? That is the government’s latest idea, and it is bold and innovative.
It will certainly get attention, even if that doesn’t mean it will work. But it is another effort by this government to differentiate itself from the leaders who came before.
In a nutshell, the idea is to cut the financing to what the Foreign Office refers to as “organised immigration networks” and is intended to deter “smugglers from profiting off the trafficking of innocent people”.
So far, so convincing. The rhetoric is good. The reality may be more difficult.
For one thing, and we await actual details of what’s going to be done, this raises an enormous question of how this can be accomplished.
Some of the people smugglers bringing people across the Channel are based in Britain, but most aren’t. And as a general rule, they’re quite hard to track down.
I know that, because I’ve met some of them.
In Kurdistan, I drank tea with a cheerful man, Karwan, who had been responsible for smuggling a thousand people into Europe.
He had absolutely no fear of being caught, and no sense that he was even breaking the law.
Instead, Karwan considered that he was doing a duty to Kurds, allowing them to escape from the hardship of their nation to a more prosperous life in other countries, including Britain. Or, at least, that’s what he said.
How exactly Britain could impose sanctions on him is hard to imagine.
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