Since the new Labour Party government came into power earlier this month, over 3,000 illegal boat migrants have crossed the English Channel from France, throwing into question Sir Keir Starmer’s ability to “stop the boats”.
According to a tally from GB News, which had producers counting boat migrants as they were brought ashore, at least 133 illegals reached British shores on Tuesday.
The news outlet reported that the latest crossings have taken the total since the Labour Party came into government this month to more than 3,200.
This brings the total figure for the year to nearly 17,000, with most crossing under the previous ‘Conservative’ government of Rishi Sunak, which suffered its worst defeat in history in large part as a result of its failures to fulfil its repeated promises to the public on immigration.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that his government will seek to “smash the gangs” behind the people-smuggling trade behind the continued waves of mostly young men arriving illegally in the country.
Critics, such as Reform boss Nigel Farage, have argued that merely targeting the gangs will be insufficient, as the lucrative model will simply motivate new criminals to fill the gaps, as with the endless and unsuccessful war on drugs. Farage and Reform UK have called for the UK to leave the deportation-blocking European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and to use the Royal Navy to immediately return boat migrants back to the beaches of France.
The English Channel migrant crisis is seriously straining public finances, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealing on Monday that the asylum system is already costing an additional £6.4 billion this year, alone.
Ahead of the latest milestone, Lee Anderson, Member of Parliament for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, put pressure on the new Labour government’s Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, who controversially shared a selfie holding up a sign saying “refugees welcome” prior to coming into power.
Anderson asked Cooper that, in light of the fact that illegal migrants are “being escorted into our waters by the French authorities,” if the left-wing government agrees that it is time to “stop paying the French any more money”.
The previous in-name-only Conservative government of Rishi Sunak committed to sending £480 million to France to fund increased police patrols of migrant camp hotspots along its coastline.
Despite criticising the former Tory government for wasteful spending on immigration, such as the failed Rwanda scheme that Prime Minister Starmer scrapped on his first day in office, ending the payments to the French does not appear to be on the agenda for Labour.
In her response to Anderson, Cooper refused to address the payments to France, merely repeating the government line of creating a new “Border Command” and committing to work closely with law enforcement in France and the rest of Europe to target the people smuggling gangs.
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