Britain now has more illegal Channel arrivals under the Labour government, which has been in power two years, than it has soldiers in the British Army.
Home Office figures put small-boat arrivals since Labour took office on 4 July 2024 at 83,279. The regular Army stands at 83,000.
On Wednesday alone, 781 people came ashore – the worst single day since Andy Burnham replaced Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister in July. The first three days of the week delivered 1,085 arrivals. Across 809 days of Labour government, that works out at roughly 103 people a day.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the milestone speaks for itself. “Labour has let an entire army-sized population cross the Channel illegally,” he said. “More people have arrived in small boats than we have soldiers defending Britain. That is completely bonkers. Labour has lost control of our borders and seems utterly incapable of getting it back.”
Former Royal Navy officer Chris Parry went further. Labour’s intake, he said, amounts to six-and-a-half divisions of fighting-age men. “That’s more divisions than were in the Allied assault wave on D-Day,” he added, calling the crossings “amphibious operations against our coast.”
The comparison is worse when the rest of the services are brought in. Labour’s small-boat total already sits 15,429 ahead of the Royal Navy and RAF combined, which together field 67,850 full-time personnel. And this is only the post-election slice. Under the Conservatives, around 128,000 people arrived by dinghy. Since records began in December 2018 the running total has blown past 200,000 – higher than the combined strength of the Army, Navy and RAF.
Writing in the Mail after more than 1,200 people crossed from Monday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “It is utterly insane. And if it wasn’t clear before, the events of the past few days have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that both Border Force and the Home Office have completely lost control.”
He added: “Years ago, I warned the small boats crisis would define this era of British politics. Predictably, the chin-stroking commentariat declared I was exaggerating. Well, look where we are now.”
“Ordinary Britons rightly ask if successive governments cannot stop people from arriving illegally in broad daylight, let alone under cover of darkness without detection, then what exactly is the point of having a border?” Farage asked. His party wants the largest military operation in the Channel since the Second World War and a return of every illegal arrival to France.
funny thing about this UK government, no one voted for burnham. he was installed by their liberal overlords.
Meanwhile the average joe has no way to fight back and has to shut up and stand down or risk being targeted by their own government!
While their communities are overrun by illegals, rapists, murderers! another reason as to why americans will never give up their guns! otherwise the tyrannical governments become your lord and master!
“Boat migrants” – I guess the writer didn’t want to go to prison for calling a spade a spade.To call a spade a spade is an idiom meaning to speak frankly, directly, and bluntly about something, even if the truth is unpleasant or rude. The phrase originates from a mistranslation of an ancient Greek proverb, “call a bowl a bowl,” which entered English in 1542 via Nicolas Udall’s translation of Erasmus.
While the idiom itself is not inherently racist, it requires caution because spade evolved into a derogatory racial slur for Black people during the Harlem Renaissance in the late 1920s. Consequently, some scholars and style guides recommend avoiding the phrase to prevent unintentional offense or misunderstanding.