Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash the criminal boat gangs” is in tatters after the number of migrants illegally crossing the English Channel reached a new record for the first half of the year. The figure is set to exceed 20,000 after 982 people arrived in small boats on Monday – and Conservatives predicted the figure could reach 50,000 by the end of the year.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “One year into Labour’s Government and the boats haven’t stopped – they’ve multiplied. Labour tore up our deterrent and replaced it with fantasy. This is the worst year on record, and it’s become a free-for-all.”
Official figures showed 19,982 migrants arrived on small boats in the first six months of 2025, a huge increase on the 13,489 arrivals in the same period last year, the previous record. The number does not include people who made the crossing on Tuesday.
Labour pledged to “smash the criminal boat gangs” in the run-up to last year’s General Election. The Government says it is stepping up co-operation with the French authorities to stop vessels leaving their shores, including training additional drone pilots and funding a new unit of elite officers to increase patrols along the northern coast.
The Prime Minister has also announced plans to send refused asylum seekers to overseas “return hubs”.
But Conservatives say Labour made a blunder by scrapping proposals to send all asylum seekers to Rwanda, which Tories believe would have deterred people from coming to the UK.
Mr Philp warned crossings could reach 50,000 by the end of the year. He said: “We need a removals deterrent so every single illegal immigrant who arrives is removed to a location outside Europe. The crossings will then rapidly stop.
“People are furious – and rightly so. Under new leadership, only the Conservatives have a credible plan to stop the crossings, restore control, and end the chaos.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said even more migrants will make the dangerous Channel crossing “if we continue to give them everything when they arrive”.
Migrants are putting their lives at risk by attempting journeys in flimsy dinghies. On Monday, a court in Lille, northern France, sentenced nine members of a people-smuggling network to a total of 64 years in prison over a small boat crossing in 2022, which left four people dead and another four missing.
In 2024, 73 people died trying to cross the English Channel by small boat, more than in all previous years put together.
But people smugglers are continuing to post adverts for their services on social media services such as TikTok.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
“That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.
“Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders.”
Most small boat migrants since 2018 have come from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Albania, Syria or Eritrea.
