A record number of people have crossed the Channel in small boats in the first six months of this year, figures reveal, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash” the smuggling gangs.
Just days before the prime minister marks one year in office, data from the Home Office shows a total of 19,982 people have arrived in the UK since the start of 2025 – the highest total for the halfway point of the year since data was first collected on migrant crossings in 2018.
The prime minister has been struggling to bring down both the number of boat crossings and the amount of money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels across the UK. But he has also faced criticism from left-wing Labour MPs and refugee charities, who have accused Sir Keir of attempting to copy Reform UK’s inflammatory rhetoric.
On Monday, some 879 people arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, provisional Home Office data showed – the third highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year.
The total for 2025 so far is 48 per cent higher than the figure for the first six months of 2024, which was 13,489, and 75 per cent higher than the equivalent figure for 2023, which was 11,433.
There were 13 boats that arrived on Monday, which suggests an average of around 68 people per boat.
A Downing Street spokesperson said on Tuesday the numbers are “clearly unacceptable”, adding: “Let’s be clear, the rising numbers in recent years are because these gangs have been allowed to embed industrial-scale smuggling enterprises across Europe.”
They said the problem requires “international solutions and international partnerships”, which is “what you’re seeing”.
It comes after Sir Keir confirmed he has been talking to countries about “return hubs” for failed asylum seekers, looking at the possibility of processing them in third countries before they are deported.
French officials have also agreed to changes that would allow police patrolling the coast to take action in the sea when migrants climb into boats from the water, which is yet to come into effect.
Meanwhile, the government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is continuing through parliament, which will hand counterterror style powers to police and introduce new criminal offences to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
But there are concerns from some MPs that the government is not going far enough, with the latest figures piling pressure on ministers to get tougher on the problem of people smuggling and the small boats.
Labour MP for Dover, Mike Tapp, whose constituency is on the front line of the small boats crisis, warned that while counterterrorism measures and hitting people smuggling gangs were working, the government needed to go further.
He told The Independent: “The fact is we have to go further in terms of returns agreements, potentially offshore processing, potentially offshore removals.
“For those that can't be removed, we need to slim down that interpretation of the ECHR, particularly article 8 (respect for private and family life and home).”
Mr Tapp added: “We'll never win the argument with the public by saying, ‘Oh, well, the law says we can’t do it.’ We are legislators. If there are laws that are not serving what is right, then we must legislate to change them as much as we possibly can.”
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said Tuesday’s figures show the government’s measures are not enough as he called for a new approach.
"The government is right to tackle the awful gangs that profiteer from desperate people who are simply trying to find safety, but the fact remains that these measures alone are so far not achieving the intended outcome, with deadly crossings rising,” he said.
“These rising numbers mean the government must immediately move from enforcement-only to a multi-pronged approach, which includes international cooperation, and ensure refugees can access safe and legal pathways, in the same way Ukrainians have been able to travel to the UK without having to take a dangerous journey.”
Meanwhile, the Tories said the latest figures show that small boat crossings have become “a free-for-all” since the party scrapped the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan.
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.
“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.”
But MPs on the left of the Labour Party have expressed concern that the prime minister is echoing the rhetoric of Reform UK in his mission to bring down migration.
Giving a speech in May, which he has since said he regrets, Sir Keir said the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” – remarks which were immediately compared to a 1968 speech from Enoch Powell which whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigration hatred across the UK.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome said the language was “shameful and dangerous”, and accused the PM of “mimicking the scaremongering of the far right”.
The government also faced criticism after publishing videos of immigration raids targeting illegal workers earlier this year, with the Refugee Council saying the government was using performative stunts to try to promote division.
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