Defence Secretary says UK has ‘lost control of borders’ after 1,200 cross Channel
The UK has ‘lost control of its borders’ over the past five years, the Defence Secretary has said, after a new high for Channel crossings was hit yesterday.
John Healey blamed the previous Conservative government for failing to control the small boats crisis in an appearance on Sky News.
He described scenes of migrants piling on flimsy crafts for the dangerous crossing from France to England on Saturday as ‘pretty shocking’.
Government figures show 18 small boats arrived on British shores yesterday, carrying 1,194 people – up from the year’s previous high of 825 last month.
Pictures from the coastal French town of Gravelines showing police officers standing by as the crafts launch into the Channel have sparked fury.
In February, the government in Paris agreed to change the law so the boats could be intercepted in shallow waters.
Sign up to Metro's politics newsletter, Alright Gov?
Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sign up here.
However, the move has still not been formally implemented and just 184 of the 1,378 migrants who attempted the crossing yesterday were rescued.
Healey said: ‘They’re not doing it, but for the first time we’ve got the level of cooperation needed, we’ve got the agreement that they will change the way they work.
‘And our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation, so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.
‘That’ll be part of, part of, I hope, dealing with this absolutely intolerable problem.’
He told Sky News: ‘Truth is, Britain’s lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration.’
Under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023, the UK agreed to pay France £480 million over three years to help reduce the number of crossings.
Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed in a post on X yesterday that ‘well over 1,000’ of the migrants who crossed the Channel on Saturday were ‘young males’, adding: ‘Our country is in peril.’
It is unclear where he got a gender breakdown for the figures.
Yesterday, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the government’s ‘pledge to smash gangs lies in tatters’, adding that the decision to scrap the Rwanda plan was a ‘catastrophic mistake’.
He also criticised the behaviour of the French, saying the country was ‘endangering lives and breaching their international law obligations’.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.