BREAKING: ​Keir Starmer makes major announcement with 'tough new law' during key speech

Keir Starmer has announced "tough new laws" to tackle illegal working as he opened a major international crime summit in London. The PM said first time firms hiring people in the ‘gig economy’ will have to check they’re eligible to work in the UK under new laws to be put before Parliament later in the year. Currently thousands of employers in the construction, food delivery, beauty salons and courier service industries are not required to check the status of people they hire.

Mr Starmer added the UK government had returned 24,000 people with "no right to be here" - something the failed Rwanda scheme "80 years to achieve". As he gathered 40 countries at the summit, the PM also urged them to go further in tackling vile people-smuggling gangs. He said they should work together in the same way they would to stop terrorists.



And his government also announced £33million in funding to disrupt trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia, and Africa. The PM said: “This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together. "When I was the Director of Public Prosecutions, we worked across borders throughout Europe and beyond to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives in the process.

We prevented planes from being blown up over the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice." Countries including Albania, Vietnam and Iraq - from where migrants have travelled to the UK - will join the talks alongside representatives from France, the US and China . Be the first with news from Mirror Politics BLUESKY: Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here .

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PODCAST: And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell , hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday. Representatives from tech giants, Meta, X and TikTok are also set to discuss how to tackle online promotion of irregular migration. The Home Office said it was launching adverts on the Vietnamese instant messaging app, Zalo, warning people of the dangers of people smuggling.

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