The Prime Minister has suggested that Britain’s exit from the European Union has hampered its efforts.
Migrants continue to cross the English Channel in small boats (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has suggested that Brexit is hampering the UK’s ability to stop migrants stopping the English Channel in small boats. When asked by BBC South East why crossings are still happening, the Prime Minister said: “I do point to the loss of collaboration with neighbours that came with Brexit.
“That hasn’t helped.
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“We had a more cooperative system, if you like, in the past, so we are not able to have the same levels of collaboration that we used to have, but I don’t put that forward as a reason why we won’t keep working until we get the crossings right down. That is our goal, that we don’t want to see any crossings at all.”
He added: “I’m not going to give you a date by which we can do that, or a promise that we will do it, as other governments have done in terms of a particular deadline.
Mr Burnham has said Brexit has not helped (Image: Getty)
“But what I will say to you is I will not stop nor will the Home Secretary until we bear down every element of this criminal, illegal activity and that we do so in a way that gets the numbers right now.”
Chris Philp, Conservative shadow home secretary, said: “Andy Burnham is gaslighting us all to hide his own failures, with over 1,000 illegal immigrants coming in this week alone.”
He added that under previous EU rules, the UK “only ever sent a handful of people back to Europe”, PA reported.
Mr Philp said: “The only way to stop the crossings is to deport all illegal immigrants upon arrival.
“To do this we need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and that’s the one thing that Weak Borders Burnham will never do.”
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This week saw more than 700 people arrived in the UK on Wednesday and two vessels landing undetected on British shores within two days.
But the overall number of crossings this year (18,609) is down 42% on this time last year (32,188), and 26% below the figure at this stage in 2024 (25,165).
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year £662million agreement with France in Dunkirk in April.
A guest on the BBC political programme likened small boat protests to having a “small penis”.
Question Time has gone too far this time (Image: BBC)
Question Time has truly gone too far this time, and I really can’t see a way back for the BBC politics programme. During last night’s episode, political activist and journalist Ash Sarkar made the explosive comment that people who are furious about small boat arrivals full of illegal migrants are like men with “small penises”.
The fury erupted after various protesters were jailed for violent behaviour – which, let me be clear, is despicable. 42-year-old Del Somerville was given a two year jail sentence for throwing a plastic bottle and swearing at police during an anti-migrant protest in Portsmouth. 38-year-old Shaun Thomson was also jailed earlier this year after admitting violent disorder during a protest outside a migrant hotel.
Violence is never right, and it’s entirely fair to call people lobbing projectiles “thugs”. But what’s not fair is extending that moniker to anyone raising perfectly valid concerns about small boat migrants.
One or two men do not represent the swathes of people up and down the country who are frightened of mass illegal immigration, when so much crime has also come from adult male migrants crossing the Channel.
In March this year, a man living in a migrant hotel was sent to a UK jail for sexual offences against three lone women who were simply walking to work. Earlier this month, another raped a woman on a night out – after being released from a UK jail for another sex attack.
The Home Office has been forced to hand out pamphlets telling said migrants not to rape, informing them that the age of consent in the UK is 16, and warning against domestic abuse.
Of course it isn’t all migrants. Of course plenty of UK residents and nationals are found guilty of the same crimes every day, but with migrant hotels sprouting up in small towns across the country and swathes of undocumented males entering the country, I don’t blame anyone for being scared. As a woman, it’s already frightening enough walking home alone at night.
So for Sarkar to compare said outrage to “small penis behaviour” feels more than a bit off, especially airing on the so-called “unbiased” BBC.
She fumed on the show: “I think that this is small penis behaviour, quite frankly. This is a bunch of guys who want to feel like big men because the missus says they can’t see the kids anymore.
“What I think is absurd is that when we’re talking about individuals being made to feel unsafe where they live, when we’re looking at boats being slashed on camera, children chanting into megaphones, ‘Let them drown’, you guys are saying well, it’s about the small boats. Well, maybe it’s also about the racism and the thuggery!”
Of course violence in any context is wrong. Of course I advocate for people’s safety, no matter whether they’re migrants arriving in small boats or British citizens. But expressing fear is natural, and suppressing fear and outrage would be censorship – to dismiss it as “small penis behaviour” simply went too far.
Shocking moment migrant leaves child in the sea during horror Channel crossing
Shocking video footage showed a man carrying a child into the water, only to abandon the youngster
Migrant abandons child during Channel migrant crossing
This is the harrowing moment a migrant left an injured child and climbed onto a Channel dinghy as the stricken youngster was rescued.
Footage of the man carrying the terrified tot through the waves to a waiting taxi-boat emerged on the same day 781 people crossed. After a wave crashes into the small child near Berck, the migrant continues pushing towards the boat, which was already packed with asylum seekers.
A wave then carries the vessel into the pair, and the dazed child starts floating on top of the water. French lifeboat crews rushed through the water, lifting the shocked child onto a rescue paddleboard. But the man shockingly turns away and tries to climb onto the dinghy.
The bewildered child is then left sitting nearby, watching, as dozens of people flounder in the water, with others still trying to clamber onto the boat.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is a sickening and heartbreaking scene. A few weeks ago, I saw a similar embarkation myself, where the young male illegal immigrants pushed women and children off the boat.
“The needy are abandoned and young, often-violent men push their way to the front and enter the UK. Women have recently died during crossings on these boats in unexplained circumstances. This illegal immigration route must be completely ended.
“The French government is morally culpable for letting it happen on their beaches when they could easily stop it, as the Belgians have done. The charities supporting this wave of illegal immigration are equally guilty for what is happening, including for the deaths that have occurred.”
The man carries the child towards the dinghy (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child, apparently unmoving, falls into the water (Image: NowherePhotographer)
Rescuers approach the child (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child is taken away (Image: NowherePhotographer)
France’s Maritime Prefect for the Channel and the North Sea said the child had been taken into care after the incident on Monday afternoon.
The organisation said: “The gendarmerie and the fire service subsequently took charge of the child, and the prefecture’s land-based services then took over. The child was taken into care following a medical incident.”
The astonishing moment came as 781 people crossed the Channel – a record number for this year.
It will heap pressure on ministers as they desperately try to convince people the borders are secure.
Some 18,565 people have crossed the Channel this year, down 42% on the equivalent point last year.
New analysis has revealed the number of migrants to have crossed the Channel under Labour is greater than the number of full-time soldiers in the British Army.
Some 83,279 people have arrived in small boats, overtaking the 83,000 in the Army.
An average of 103 people per day have crossed the Channel in the 809 days since Labour won the keys to Downing Street.
Mr Philp said: “Labour has let an entire Army-sized population cross the Channel illegally.
“More people have arrived in small boats than we have soldiers defending Britain. That is completely bonkers. Labour has lost control of our borders and seems utterly incapable of getting it back.
“The Conservative plan is to end hotels and benefits for illegal immigrants and instead deport them.”
The dinghy packed with migrants (Image: NowherePhotographer)
But Labour’s Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, sensationally claimed that Border Force cannot intercept every single migrant crossing.
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, launched an “urgent review” as officials confirmed at least 21 asylum seekers arrived in Samphire Hoe on Tuesday.
Others are feared to be on the run, with the Home Office carrying out a “thorough investigation”.
And at least five migrants were detected at The Warren, a rocky stretch of coast near Folkestone, on Monday. The crossings were the first unauthorised landings in a year
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman, said: “This is an abject surrender of our borders by Lucy Powell and Labour. Every migrant boat can and should be intercepted, but this government is too gutless to deploy the Royal Navy and protect the British public from this invasion of undocumented fighting-age men.”
Mr Yusuf added: “It’s abundantly clear that this government will not stop the invasion of unvetted fighting-age males into our country.
“Instead, they are incentivising them with lavish police motorcades to their taxpayer-funded hotels, all while the British public struggles to afford to live in our own country.
“Labour’s promise to smash the gangs is in complete tatters. Without withdrawing from the ECHR and deploying the Royal Navy, the boats will keep on coming, and Brits will continue being forced to foot the bill for these invaders.”
Ms Powell echoed that language on Thursday but suggested not all crossings could be prevented.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the situation was embarrassing for the Government, she responded: “(You) can’t stop everything all of the time.
“Of course, it’s a concern. That’s why the Home Secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review, because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.
“But the overall picture is an improving picture. It is hard, difficult work that requires constant, constant effort by our border forces, our security services, police, our partnerships with France and other countries.
“This is a mammoth and huge task, which is now starting to reap some dividends. But of course, you know where there are still issues arising, we must absolutely tackle them.”
Pressed on Good Morning Britain whether she stood by her statement, Ms Powell said: “I think you’re just taking that completely out of context.
“We are clamping down on small boat crossings every single day… we are sucking the oxygen out of it, we are taking steps, and there are many, many steps.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to just turn on a switch, turn off a switch overnight. We have to constantly evolve.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable – with crossings down by 42% and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.
“But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.”
