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The Man Advising Starmer on National Security Once Ran a Secret Backchannel to a Terrorist Group
This week Keir Starmer sat down in London with Ahmed al-Sharaa to discuss border security and migration returns. Al-Sharaa, now president of Syria, was until recently better known by his jihadist nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. He commanded al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate. He was subject to a $10 million US bounty. He refused to apologise for terror attacks that killed scores of civilians in Iraq and Syria. Starmer's stated purpose for the meeting was to discuss how to stop people crossing the Channel. That is where British border policy now stands.
The man who arranged the groundwork for this meeting is Jonathan Powell, Starmer's national security adviser. Powell ran a secret backchannel between MI6 and al-Sharaa's organisation, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, in 2023, when it was still a proscribed terrorist group. Under the Terrorism Act, arranging such a meeting carries a sentence of up to 14 years. Powell operated through his charity, Inter Mediate, using a legal loophole written for humanitarian organisations. His involvement was never publicly disclosed when he was appointed national security adviser. He remains in post.
Powell's fingerprints are on more than Syria. When the Iran conflict escalated this year, he had been advising during the preceding Geneva nuclear talks. He reportedly viewed Iranian proposals as a credible basis for a deal, a position that contributed directly to Britain's initial reluctance to support the US-led military response. The man advising Starmer on national security helped slow Britain's response to an Iranian regime that was simultaneously threatening British interests across the region.
Meanwhile, the border he is supposedly helping to secure is not being secured. The French deal expired at midnight on Tuesday. No new agreement was reached. Britain is now paying £16.5 million for a two-month emergency extension while negotiations continue. When the current three-year deal began in 2023, French forces were intercepting 46.9 per cent of Channel crossings. That figure has fallen to 33.1 per cent, the lowest since small boat crossings began. Britain has paid £475 million for a deal under which French interception rates have dropped by nearly a third. Macron promised sea interceptions last summer. Three have taken place.
Nigel Farage's assessment is blunt and difficult to refute. If you cross the Channel illegally, you have over a 90 per cent chance of remaining in the United Kingdom. That is not a border. That is a welcome mat with a processing queue attached.
And the processing queue is not shrinking. Appeals against rejected asylum claims have nearly doubled in a year to over 100,000. The deportation crackdown announced with such fanfare last week uses Blair-era legislation at half the rate Blair used it. The safe countries list excludes Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea and Somalia, the primary sources of small boat crossings. The men most likely to arrive unvetted are almost entirely unaffected.
And while the announcements multiply, the contracts tell a different story. The government is procuring new asylum accommodation deals worth an estimated £10 billion, stretching to 2039. You do not sign contracts at that scale and that timeline for a problem you intend to solve. You sign them for a situation you have decided to manage permanently. This is not a government that has lost control of its borders. The contracts prove it never intended to hold them.
"Under the Terrorism Act, arranging such a meeting carries a sentence of up to 14 years. Powell operated through his charity, Inter Mediate, using a legal loophole written for humanitarian organisations. His involvement was never publicly disclosed when he was appointed national security adviser. He remains in post."
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