Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused recently-installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham of being delusional about the migrant crisis in the English Channel, which has ramped up considerably since the new government came to power last week.
During his first week in officer, Prime Minister Burnham oversaw some 881 illegals being brought ashore at the Port of Dover. This compares with the 546 boat migrant arrivals during the first week of Sir Keir Starmer’s administration in July of 2024, according to The Sun.
Despite the fact that Starmer would go on to allow in the most illegals of any prime minister on record, and that his government is already outpacing that, Burnham has claimed that the Labour Party’s plan to deal with the crisis is “working”.
Crossing continued seemingly unabated on Wednesday, with observers claiming that upwards of 700 illegals attempted to reach British beaches after being launched from the French coastline in people-smuggler-operated boats, with some 500 making it to Britain sucesfully. On Thursday morning, the human traffickers who put migrants onto the water in unseaworthy boats killed again, with three people now reported to have died attempting a migrant crossing this morning near the French port of Dunkirk.
Responding to the latest crossings and the statements from the new prime minister, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage remarked: “The invasion continues. Yet Burnham said yesterday, ‘The plan is working’. What planet is he on?”
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “The Conservative government failed to do anything, they failed to heed my warnings on what needed to be done…and the numbers have been rising ever since. I am not persuaded by Andy Burnham’s pledge to fix the problem.”
Crossings are down around 45 per cent compared to last year, and around 16 per cent compared to the same time period in 2024, with over 13,000 arriving since the start of the year. However, it appears that people-smuggling networks have shifted their tactics in recent weeks.
According to a “maritime” source quoted by GB News, the trafficking groups have begun to expand their launch points along the French coastline, saying: “What we’re seeing here is a full-frontal assault by the criminal gangs.”
“For weeks, they’ve been frustrated by increased police patrols, hampering their ability to launch boats from their regular push-off points around Calais and Dunkirk. That’s forced a switch in tactics, with most launches happening up to a hundred miles south of Dunkirk, around the Dieppe area.”
Meanwhile, despite the British government having handed over hundreds of millions to France to fund counter-people smuggling operations, inactive French gendarmes were filmed this week by Conservative MP Chris Philp. One of the officers was heard telling the Shadow Justice Minister that their “orders were to let them go” when asked why they did not stop the migrants from entering the water.
This came one day after the French Navy was accused of firing warning shots at Philps’ boat as he sought to document the crisis in the English Channel.
The Conservative MP has accused Burnham of having “learned nothing from the failure of Keir Starmer”.
“Mass immigration has failed – communities have failed to integrate, British workers have been undercut, and our generosity has been abused,” he said on Tuesday. “We should only let in a small number of highly skilled migrants. Clearly, it doesn’t matter who is in charge, Labour will never take the necessary action that is needed to tackle immigration.”
However, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf said that the Conservatives cannot be trusted on the issue either, noting that Philp previously served as the Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice under Boris Johnson, who oversaw record levels of immigration coming into the country.
“The Tories created the crisis. OVER 127,000 invaders crossed the channel under Tory governments. They promised to stop the boats, and supercharged them instead. Do not let them fool you into letting them doing it again,” Yusuf warned.