Lee Anderson reacted with dismay after the Home Secretary failed to answer his question (Image: Parliament.tv)

       Reform UK's Lee Anderson has come out fighting on illegal migration across the Channel and called out the Labour Home Secretary for not answering his "simple question" in Parliament.

       During a debate in the House of Commons on Border Security and Asylum on Monday Mr Anderson asked the Labour Cabinet member if would support sending small boats carrying migrants "back the same day".

       The Reform UK MP said he had visited the asylum seeker camps in northern France and been told by would-be Channel crossers that the only thing that would stop them would be if UK Border Force vessels turned the migrant boats around.

       In her response Labour's Yvette Cooper did not say if she would support sending migrant boats back in the Channel and instead criticised Reform for "refusing" to co-operate with Europe over the immigration issue.

       Taking to X after the debate, Mr Anderson reacted to Ms Cooper's response and wrote: "I raised this issue once again today and once again the Labour Home Secretary refused to answer. There is a simple solution to this and only Reform UK would do this."

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       Mr Anderson asked the Home Secretary if she would support sending small boats back the same day (Image: PA )

       Latest Home Office figures have shown nearly 1,500 migrants had arrived in the UK on small boats across the Channel in one week.

       Some 1,499 people made the journey in 27 boats from July 15 to 21, while the French coastguard confirmed two people died amid rescue operations off the northern French coast.

       The maritime prefecture also said on Sunday that a further 71 migrants were saved in the Channel, but that some travellers on the boat who were not requesting assistance were allowed to continue the journey.

       During the debate in Parliament on Monday, Mr Anderson said: "When I was in the migrant camps in northern France last year, the migrants told me and some of my colleagues that one deterrent that would stop them coming would be if they were turned back in the channel or sent back the same day.

       "We saw the Border Force agency take a boatload back just last week. Will the Home Secretary now, with that advice, grow a political backbone and order the Border Force to send the boats back the same day?"

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       The Home Secretary fired back at Mr Anderson that his party did not back cooperation with Europe (Image: Getty )

       In a lengthy reply Labour's frontbencher Ms Cooper focused on Reform UK's position on Europe but did not commit to a decision on reversing migrant boats attempting to cross the Channel on the same day.

       She said: "The honourable Member refers to an incident in the channel where there was co-operation between Border Force and the French authorities that also involved returning people to the French coast.

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       "That operational co-operation is important, but I would just say to him that “co-operation” is the really important word.

       "If we want to prevent gangs operating and organising, and prevent boats from reaching the French coast in the first place, we have to work closely not just with France but with Germany and other European countries, and with the countries through which some of the supply chains are operating.

       "It is that co-operation that he and some others in his party have quite often refused, but it will be important and is our best way to stop the criminal gangs."

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