Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK, has responded to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, vowing to increase removals to levels not seen since Theresa May’s government (see earlier post at 10.12 for more details).

Plans include 100 more new intelligence officers to target people smuggling gangs and reopening immigration removal centres in Hampshire and Oxfordshire.

Valdez-Symonds said Labour is simply “reheating” the previous government’s rhetoric and should instead focus on establishing safe routes to reduce the dangers of border crossings and reduce the risk of vulnerable people being exploited by criminal gangs.

He said the government is “promoting an age-old message of fear and hostility regarding some of the most victimised and traumatised people”. While the vast majority of people come to the UK legally, it is dangerous Channel crossings in small boats that have become politically central. This was notably the case for the former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who made “stop the boats” his flagship immigration policy.

Valdez-Symonds said:

It’s dismaying to see the new government reheating the last government’s rhetoric over ‘border security’ and ‘smashing gangs’ even while neglecting the pressing need to provide safe asylum routes and a clear guarantee of asylum to refugees arriving here.

People in urgent need – including those fleeing war and persecution in places like Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran – will keep coming to the UK and other countries, and the government needs to establish safe routes that reduce the perils of dangerous border crossings and the risk of exploitation by ruthless smuggling gangs.

This ‘securitised’ approach to asylum and immigration will simply deter and punish many of the people most in need of crossing borders, people who are therefore often most vulnerable to criminal exploitation.

Increasing immigration powers – including to detain people – rather than making sure existing powers are only used where that is necessary and fair has for decades rewarded Home Office inefficiency and injustice.

A new set of ministers promoting an age-old message of fear and hostility regarding some of the most victimised and traumatised people who may ever arrive in the UK, means that smuggling gangs and racist and Islamophobic hate-mongers at home are likely to feed off this to everyone’s detriment.

There have been warnings that ministers will struggle to prepare for next month’s early release of thousands of prisoners.

Up to 2,000 prisoners are expected to be released in the second week of September as part of an early release scheme, called SDS40, which will allow many prisoners to walk from prison after serving 40% of their sentences.

A second tranche of up to 1,700 prisoners, all jailed for more than five years, are expected to be freed in late October to relieve pressure on overcrowded prisons.

While successive governments have invested into recruiting new staff to the probation service, there is not much sign of this activity paying off, with the latest Ministry of Justice data showing there were 178 fewer probation officers over the last quarter.

Speaking this morning to the Today programme, the chief inspector of probation, Martin Jones, said that staffing levels and excessive caseloads could cause problems for the overstretched and under-resourced probation service.

“We know that good probation practice keeps communities safe and reduces reoffending, but they need the staff and the resources to do that,” Jones said.

“At the moment, I fear that the caseload is too high to do that well enough in all cases and that is something I think will require urgent attention going forward.”

He also said:

The probation service doesn’t have the probation officers it needs to deliver its core caseload and therefore what you see is probation officers with excessive caseloads. There is a limit therefore as to what you can properly do as a result of that.

If you are looking to release somebody from prison, a most important thing is to understand the risk that person represents. Are they a high risk offender or are they a low risk offender? What are their needs? Do they have mental health difficulty? Do they have drug addiction problems?

If you do not understand that at the point that person is released, it’s a recipe for failure and quite often will result in recall to prison or increased reoffending.

Good morning and welcome back to our rolling coverage of UK politics.

Yvette Cooper has indicated she will press ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in an attempt to achieve the highest rate of removals since Theresa May’s premiership.

The home secretary announced the Border Security Command “is gearing up” after the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats exceeded 19,000 this year so far. The plans include 100 more new intelligence officers to target people smuggling gangs.

The Labour government has pledged “290 added immigration removals” beds at Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxfordshire and Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire – centres which had previously closed down in 2019 and 2015.

Cooper said she plans to achieve the highest rate of deportations since 2018 for refused asylum seekers, and said the Home Office will launch a new intelligence-driven illegal working programme to target employers who hire people with no right to be in the UK.

So far there have been nine returns flights in the last six weeks, including the largest-ever chartered return flight, the Home Office said. The Conservatives said Labour were “not serious about tackling the people smugglers or stopping the boats”.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council charity, meanwhile, has urged the government to support failed asylum seekers to return voluntarily, and said that the government needs to provide safe routes as a way to stop the boats. You can read more on this story here from the Guardian’s home affairs editor, Rajeev Syal.

Here are some of the other main headlines today:

• Strong spending on public services and welfare pushed government borrowing to £3.1bn last month, more than double its level in the same month a year earlier, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. You can follow our business liveblog for the reaction to the latest public finances data here.

• Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to cut the proportion of the sentence inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%. The temporary move – which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences – is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.

• Carer support payment, the replacement for carer’s allowance, is now available in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Fife, Moray and North, East and South Ayrshire.
  It comes after it was piloted in Perth and Kinross, Dundee City, Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Angus and North and South Lanarkshire, and will be available across all of Scotland from 4 November. Unlike carer’s allowance, which is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions, carer support payment is available to some carers in full-time education, including full-time students aged 20 or over and students under 20 who are in advanced or higher education.

It is Yohannes Lowe here with you today. Please do email me on yohannes.lowe@theguardian.com if you spot any typos or omissions.