LONDON: More than 50,000 people have made the perilous Channel crossing to the UK in small boats since Keir Starmer became prime minister last July, official figures showed on Tuesday.

Starmer came to power promising to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers operating the boats, but 474 more people made the crossing on Monday, bringing the total to 50,271 since he came to power on July 5, 2024.

The issue of cross-Channel migration has become a major headache for Starmer’s year-old Labour government, as support for the upstart anti-immigrant Reform UK party soars. More than 27,000 migrants have made the Channel crossing in rudimentary vessels this year alone.

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party that was defeated last year, on Tuesday said that she would “quickly” stop the crossings if she was in power. “Stopping people from coming here in the first place — if they think they’re going to be sent to Rwanda and not get here, get a free hotel, get benefits, then they won’t come here,” she said.

London and Paris last month unveiled a “pilot” programme to return to France some of the migrants arriving in the UK on small boats, with the first detentions made last week. Starmer called the deal “groundbreaking” and capable of stemming the record numbers of people who have embarked on the journey so far this year.

Although Starmer did not say how many people might be returned to France, media reports suggest it could initially total around 50 people a week. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the deal “a humiliation for Brexit Britain”.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2025