This is the staggering moment a migrant dinghy defied choppy Channel conditions as the number of small boat arrivals soared past 50,000. The striking footage, obtained by the Daily Express, shows dozens of men packed together, holding on, as their boat rode the waves.

A French warship had to launch a speedboat to guide the migrant dinghy away from the path of a large cargo ship, a witness revealed. It comes as the number of small boat arrivals under Sir Keir Starmer surged past 50,000 on Monday. A migrant has arrived every 11 minutes since the Prime Minister took office.

The video, taken on Monday afternoon, could show the 50,000^th migrant to arrive under Labour. About 400 people are believed to have been detected on Monday morning.

Young men dangled their legs over the side of the dinghy, with alarmingly few wearing a lifejacket.

Others sat on the flimsy floor of the boat, despite fears it could cause it to collapse and plunge people into the water.

Many could be seen shouting at each other.

A witness told the Express: “We could see the French warship gradually approaching from the distance.

“The weather was turning bad and the wind was increasing and we were surprised that it carried on bringing the migrant boat into the rough weather.

“We could clearly see the UK border force boat waiting on the border line and they had been waiting for over an hour as the dinghy made slow progress through the rough sea.

“Once it got close, we could see that many of the people on board were young men and had no lifejackets.

“At one point, it was very close to a large ship in the shipping lane and the French warship launched its rescue boat from the warship to direct it away from the path of the oncoming ship, once it eventually cross the border the UK border force picked up all the people and took them to Dover.”

Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers said: It’s devastating, isn’t it? It’s devastating for the taxpayers picking up the tab. It’s devastating for communities across the country, like in Epping, where we’re seeing some horrific incidents.

“And what occurred there, that means that people don’t go out in their own communities and feel safe. They don’t send their children out and their wives and women around in public spaces. And it’s devastating for local economies.

“I went to Altrincham a little while ago. And so what it meant for the local economy when you have 300 hotel rooms in a town, in a small town, and that gets taken over by 300 lone men who hang around the town centre, not only do you have that that concern about those gangs of men in the town centre…those 300 people aren’t turning up every week. They aren’t buying things, they aren’t spending in those shops and those restaurants.”

Around 400 people were detected in small boats on Monday, smashing the barrier in a record 401 days.

The number of small boat arrivals under Rishi Sunak passed 50,000 603 days into his premiership.

Under Boris Johnson, it took 1,066 days.

A record number of migrants have crossed the Channel for five consecutive months, highlighting how smugglers are exploiting Britain’s lax borders.

Analysis of Home Office figures show 4,586 people were detected in March, a 44% increase on the previous high of 3,180 in 2024.

The rise in April was even sharper, with the recorded total of 4,432 103% higher than the 2,176 arrivals in 2023.

May’s 3,738 was 28% higher than 2022. But the months of June and July show the scale of the crisis Labour is facing.

In June, 5,170 migrants crossed the Channel, up from 3,823 in 2023 – an increase of 35%. And July’s total of 5,454 represented an increase of 48% from 3,687 in 2022.

And the alarming increase has prompted renewed fears over the impact the crisis is having on communities across Britain.

Mr Vickers added: “It’s gone up by 51% with Starmer in office.

“That is huge. You can’t integrate people on that scale. And the reality is that these aren’t women and children, they’re largely, very largely, groups of lone men.

“So, she said, we should look at all the options on this, firstly, at how we accommodate these people when they’re here, looking at the potential of camps, asking the questions, seeing what the community thinks of that.”