Trafficking gangs will be ‘rubbing their hands with glee’ if Labour win the election, the Home Secretary warned last night.
James Cleverly made the remarks after it emerged that nearly 900 migrants reached Britain in just one day earlier this week.
The Home Office confirmed there were 882 small boat arrivals on Tuesday – the highest number for more than 18 months.
Mr Cleverly said: ‘People smugglers are vile and criminal, but they’re not stupid.
‘They are marketing their criminal services via social media and they change their tactics in response to the UK government’s actions.
James Cleverly made the remarks after it emerged that nearly 900 migrants reached Britain in just one day earlier this week
An overloaded dinghy of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK in April
‘A Labour government led by a man with a history of being weak on immigration, and the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme will be used as a selling point around the world.
‘Labour’s immigration plan is just a rebranding of existing Home Office teams, and the scrapping of our key deterrent.
‘The smugglers will be rubbing their hands with glee if Labour win this election.’
The Conservatives have vowed to plough ahead with compulsory removals of ‘irregular’ migrants to Rwanda if they retain power in the general election.
By contrast, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his party will immediately cancel the Rwanda deal.
Labour says it will instead seek a new returns agreement with France – which has already been rejected multiple times by president Emmanuel Macron’s administration – as well as create a beefed-up Border Security Command.
Since January 1, more than 11,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel on small boats
RNLI lifeboats and Border Force Vessels were seen rounding up men, women and children as they arrived into the Port of Dover
The arrivals on Tuesday – including children – came after four days of no crossings due to windy conditions in the Channel.
It smashed the previous daily record for this year by more than 180 and took the total number of arrivals so far this year to 12,313, up 17 per cent on the same point last year.
It was highest daily tally since 947 people reached British soil on November 29, 2022.
Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow immigration minister, said: ‘Far from stopping the boats, Rishi Sunak is presiding over the worst year our country has ever seen for Channel crossings.
‘While he has focused all his efforts on trying to get 300 migrants sent to Rwanda, 40 times that many people have crossed the Channel already this year, the trafficking gangs have got ever richer and the amount the government is spending on hotels for asylum seekers remains stuck at £8million a day.’
Migrants board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel in April
By contrast, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his party will immediately cancel the Rwanda deal
He added: ‘The Labour party has a comprehensive plan to smash the gangs and end the use of hotels, with hundreds of specialist investigators using anti-terrorist powers under a new Border Security Command and the creation of a new Returns and Enforcement Unit to remove people from Britain who have no right to be here.’
Earlier this week it emerged a second failed asylum seeker had been sent voluntarily to Rwanda.
The unnamed migrant was handed about £3,000 in British taxpayers’ money in exchange for agreeing to go to Kigali.
Ministers revealed the voluntary scheme in March as an addition to the compulsory removals programme.
Under the terms of the voluntary scheme anyone who agrees to be sent to Rwanda will receive the same terms as under the compulsory measures, including up to five years’ accommodation, employment training, healthcare and other support.
Ministers believe the prospect of being removed to Rwanda will deter migrants from crossing from northern France in the first place.
The all-time highest daily number of small boat arrivals is 1,305 on September 3, 2022.
