Small boat migrants have enjoyed visits to the circus, driving lessons and crazy golf at a taxpayers’ expense. An audit of local council spending by Reform also uncovered spending at luxury department store Fortnum and Mason, as well as purchases from Argos, Currys and Amazon.
The spending, reported in the Daily Mail, was branded “a betrayal of the taxpayer” by Reform’s Zia Yusuf. He oversaw a so-called DOGE inquiry to look into the spending of councils which Reform controls following local election wins in May. Much of the cash was spent by Kent County Council, which is responsible for ssome of the areas where small boat migrants are arriving such as Dover.
Children who make the Channel crossing are initially taken into the care of Kent County Council with some later dispersed around the country, and the inquiry found 2,500 children are entering Kent’s care system every year.
The inquiry found Kent spent £279.91 at the Santus Circus on days out for child migrants, as well as £6,055 at a swimming pool, £55.50 at Mr Mulligans Crazy Golf. The authority spent also spent almost £300 on driving lessons.
It spent £102.95 at Fortnum and Mason, paid out of the council’s Social Fund, as well as £162,077 at Amazon, including 2,966 transactions related to asylum seekers. The council also spent £11,521 at Currys and £70,056 at Argos
The Mail reports Kent Council said most of the spending was for unaccompanied asylum seeker children or asylum seekers aged between 18 and 25 who have left the care system but remain the responsibility of the council.
Other councils are also spending cash. Nottinghamshire county council spent £38,007 on McDonald’s and £7,143 on Domino’s, with most of he money coming from the children and education budget.
Doncaster spent £16,659 at McDonald’s, with 93 per cent coming from the children and education budget.
The Prime Minister is due to discuss border security with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week as Sir Keir Starmer called illegal migration “a global problem”.
Sir Keir said Mr Merz’s visit to the UK will include talks on “what more we can do together to prosecute criminal networks and prevent people smuggling to the UK”.
“The networks of these criminal gangs stretch across countless countries and legal systems, showing no respect for our borders,” he added.
“We’ll go further to tackle this shared issue together.”
According to the Home Office, 353 people crossed the English Channel by small boat on Friday, just a day after the Prime Minister signed a deal with French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at deterring migrants from making the perilous journey.
This was down from the 573 people who crossed on Thursday, the first time any such journeys were made in a week.
More crossings were witnessed on Saturday, but the full figures are yet to be published.
Border force vessels and the RNLI were called out on both Thursday and Friday to reports of multiple boats crossing the channel, the Coastguard said.
A statement from the Coastguard said: “HM Coastguard has been co-ordinating a response to multiple incidents involving small boats in the Channel on 10 and 11 July.
“UK Border Force and RNLI vessels have been sent as part of this response.”
Under the terms of the deal agreed by the Prime Minister and Mr Macron, the UK will be able to send migrants back to France for the first time in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain.
The so-called one in, one out deal is due to begin in weeks on a pilot basis, but needs final legal verification from the EU.
Downing Street has indicated ministers expect the EU to support the arrangement, amid concerns among some European governments that migrants who have travelled to Britain could end up back on their territory.
No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the pilot, but French officials had indicated it could initially be limited to about 50 a week, a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782.
Sir Keir wrote: “This is what serious, practical solutions to global problems look like.
“We will do our duty as a compassionate country, accepting genuine asylum seekers who respect our rules and our way of life. That is fair.
“But people who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started. That is a real deterrent.”
At least 21,000 people have already made the journey since January, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for crossings.