Nigel Farage has blasted “weak” Sir Keir Starmer over 50,000 migrants crossing the Channel on small boats under Labour. The milestone is expected to be confirmed on Tuesday when official figures are released.

In a post on X, the Reform UK leader said: “As I predicted five years ago, unless we deport illegal migrants, the invasion will be huge. Fifty thousand since our weak Prime Minister took office, and there is no sign of it stopping.”

The 50,000 figure comes 401 days after Sir Keir entered 10 Downing Street, compared to 603 under his predecessor Rishi Sunak.

Labour has pledged to “smash the gangs” in order to get a grip on the small boats crisis.

The Prime Minister scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda deportation plan as one of his first acts in office.

The scheme had been beset by legal challenges and only a handful of migrants ever went to the African nation voluntarily.

Education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith, a former home secretary, said it was “unacceptable” that 50,000 migrants are set to have crossed the Channel since Labour came to power last year.

But she blamed the previous Conservative government for allowing gangs to become entrenched.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: “It is an unacceptable number of people.

“It sort of demonstrates the way over the last six or seven years that the criminal gangs have got an absolute foothold in the tragic trafficking of people across the Channel.”