Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. (Image: Getty)
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, has launched a scathing critique of Labour's handling of migration, blaming Sir Keir Starmer’s government for an alleged 64% surge in Channel crossings since July.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Mr Philp highlighted figures showing 20,110 crossings in Sir Keir's first 150 days compared to pre-election periods.
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He also urged ministers to introduce a hard limit on migrant numbers, saying: "If they are really serious... about reducing net migration as we are, what we really need is a hard cap on the numbers, proposed by the leader of the opposition and I last week.
"Behind all the bluster and all the chat about previous governments, we see her record and her Government's record.
"A 64% increase in small boat crossings since the same period before the election, 6,000 extra people in hotels, the asylum backlog up by 11,000, all since the July 4."
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Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp. (Image: Getty)
Since Labour came to power, there had been an 18% increase in crossings compared with the corresponding 150-day period in 2023, and a “staggering" 64% rise compared with the 150 days immediately prior to the election, Mr Philip claimed.
In response, Ms Cooper blamed the Tories for failures in the migration system over the past five years.
Home Office figures showed 122 people made the journey on Sunday in two boats - Sir Keir's 150th day in office - which means 20,110 crossings have been recorded since the Labour leader walked into Number 10 in July after his party won the general election.
Ms Cooper said many people had "understandably lost faith in the entire system" but sought to blame the Conservatives for a "collapse in controls".
She claimed illegal and legal migration had both "substantially increased" under the Tories while the asylum backlog "soared" and "enforcement of basic rules fell apart”.
Migrants illegally crossing the English Channel in a small boat (Image: Getty)
She added: "The scale of failure and loss of control has badly undermined trust in the entire system, and it will take time to turn things around."
Ms Cooper also pledged to enforce new visa rules enacted when Rishi Sunak was prime minister and to tackle exploitation in the legal migration system.
She also said the new Border Security Command and a "landmark" deal with Iraq signed last week and intended to crack down on people smuggling would help stem the number of illegal migrants coming to the UK.
Ms Cooper continued: "We have the chance now to turn that around, to fix the chaos, to bring net migration down, to tackle the criminal gangs and prevent dangerous boat crossings, to restore order, control and fair rules properly enforced, not through gimmicks but through hard graft and serious international partnerships."
She further announced a detailed breakdown of the costs of the now-scrapped Rwanda deal would be published.
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Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. (Image: Getty)
The scheme was aimed at deterring migrants with the threat they could be flown to Kigali, but the Home Secretary said: "The result of that massive commitment of time and money was 84,000 crossed the Channel from the day the deal was signed to the day it was scrapped.
"This so-called deterrent did not result in a single deportation or stop a single boat crossing the Channel."
Downing Street has insisted fresh efforts to tackle Channel crossings are starting to show results, but ministers have so far been reluctant to set any targets.
This year saw a record number of crossings in the first three months of the year, as did the period between January and June.
Labour sources said the weather played a "significant part" in the numbers, citing Home Office analysis they claimed showed that October 11 to November 10 saw the "highest ever ratio" of so-called red days in a month-long period - when weather conditions are considered to make crossings likely or very likely.
This saw 26 out of the 31 days classed as likely to see Channel crossings compared to three red days for the same dates last year.
Some 6,288 migrants crossed the Channel between those dates, compared to 768 in the same period last year.
Migrants attempt to board small boat to Britain in June
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Mr Sunak’s premiership saw 11,309 migrant Channel crossings within his first 150 days of being in charge of the country.
It took roughly eight-and-a-half months for migrant crossings to top 20,000 after Mr Sunak became prime minister, and this number was reached on his 257th day in office.
His tenure began in the autumn, meaning his first few months in power coincided with winter weather conditions when typically fewer crossings take place.
By contrast, Sir Keir took on the role in the middle of the summer period when crossing numbers are usually at their highest and most frequent amid spells of better weather.
The latest crossings are the first since November 16, marking a 14-day hiatus in activity amid bad weather.
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That was the longest period without crossings so far this year and means November saw the lowest monthly total for arrivals since Sir Keir became Prime Minister.
The first arrivals in December take the provisional total for the year so far to 33,684, PA news agency analysis of the figures shows.
This is up 18% on this time last year (28,453) but down 24% on 2022 (44,174), which was a record high year for crossings.