New data has revealed that more migrants have illegally crossed the English Channel during Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first weeks in office compared to former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s early tenure.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has overseen more illegal Channel crossings in his first three weeks in office than his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer. 📺 DETAIL: Prime Minister Burnham has already presided over 3,003 illegal Channel crossings in his first 22 days as Prime Minister, averaging 130 arrivals per day. This is a higher rate than former Prime Minister Starmer, who presided over an average of 103 arrivals per day during his first three weeks in office. In contrast, former Conservative (Tory) Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak saw averages of 58 per day and 82 per day, respectively, during the early weeks of their premierships. The increase in crossings has been attributed to the emergence of “mega-dinghies,” which are vessels carrying hundreds of migrants at a time. On Monday, it was revealed that one such mega-dinghy was carrying a record-breaking 230 illegal migrants. “It’s no longer a small boats crisis – it’s a big boat invasion. These mega-dinghies are frankly scary and they’ll only get bigger. The Tories failed abysmally but somehow things have got even worse under Burnham. He doesn’t have a plan and the country still doesn’t have a border,” an ex-Home Office source said. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “Andy Burnham has a worse small boat record than Keir Starmer, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in the first 22 days of their premiership, yet this morning he literally failed to commit to ending the small boat crisis by the next General Election. Britain is owed a Prime Minister who will actually put an end to this crisis and pull the plug on the incentives driving migrants across the Channel – not another feeble politician making excuses for why they cannot. Under a Reform UK Government, our border will be impenetrable.” – Zia Yusuf, Shadow Home Secretary for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party 🎯 IMPACT: This data suggests that Burnham’s approach to the ongoing border crisis is even more lax than Starmer’s, which was widely criticized as ineffective. This data reflects a warning from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage earlier this year that a Burnham premiership would result in a loss of control at the border. The data also reveals how the crisis has evolved, from a high number of small boats carrying comparatively smaller groups of illegal migrants to mega-dinghies carrying large numbers of migrants all at once. |
Image by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
.jpg){kind=link}
