Category Archives: small boat crossings

Rishi Sunak Accused Of ‘Bare-Faced Lie’ For Wrongly Claiming Small Boat Crossings Are Falling

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Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “bare-faced lie” for wrongly claiming the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats is coming down.

Sunak said: “Over the last twelve months, the number of crossings [are] down a third because the plans we’ve put in place are starting to make a difference.”

But figures released by the Home Office today show that 10,745 have made the perilous journey so far this year – up 41% on the same point last year.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow paymaster general, said: “Another bare-faced lie from Rishi Sunak has been exposed.

“Last night, he told the British people that the number of small boat arrivals were coming down. But today, we have confirmation from the Home Office itself that small boat arrivals so far in 2024 are at a record high, running more than 40% higher than last year.

“Even worse, we now know that – when Rishi Sunak promised the British people that he would stop the boats – he was telling another lie.

“Exactly 18 months on from that day, 40,000 people have now made the crossing, while he has sat on his hands doing nothing to take on the smuggling gangs. Rishi Sunak has become a desperate liar.”

The row follows the controversy over Sunak’s claim that Labour will put up taxes by £2,000 per household if the party wins on July 4.

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‘Evidence Of Failure’: Rishi Sunak Slammed After Breaking Pledge To ‘Stop The Boats’

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Rishi Sunak has been slammed after breaking his key promise to voters to “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel.

A total of 29,437 people made the perilous crossing from France in 2023, according to provisional Home Office figures.

Although that is a 36% fall on the 2022 figure of 45,774, it is still the second highest total since the crossings began in 2018.

It is almost exactly a year since Sunak made stopping the boats one of his five pledges to voters.

He said at the time: “No tricks, no ambiguity – we’re either delivering for you or we’re not.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the fall in small boat crossings since 2022 as “modest” and “helped by the weather”.

She said: “This has been the second highest number of small boat crossings on record, 100 times higher than it was five years ago – evidence of the failure of Rishi Sunak’s promise to stop the boats this year.

“We also have record high numbers in asylum hotels, 20% higher than when the Prime Minister promised to end them a year ago, costing the taxpayer £8m a day.

“The Tories have lost control of our border security and broken our asylum system. They are failing to tackle the criminal gangs where smuggler convictions have dropped by 30%, they’ve let the backlog soar and returns of failed asylum seekers are 50% lower than under the last Labour government.

“Too often they focus on gimmick rather than getting a grip.”

Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “The idea this is a victory for Rishi Sunak is absolutely laughable.

“In any other walk of life, someone meeting less than a third of their target would be in line for the sack. Yet Sunak expects praise. What a farce.

“This has been a mess of the government’s own making. Rishi Sunak promised the British public to stop all small boat crossings, anything less will be seen as a failure come the election this year.”

Sunak admitted last month that there is “no firm date” for when the small boat crossings will finally end.

He is pinning his hopes on parliament passing his Safety of Rwanda Bill, which could finally lead to asylum seekers being deported to the east African country.

Ministers say that will act as a deterrent to immigrants trying to reach the UK, despite little evidence to back that up.

Sunak has so far only met one of his five pledges by halving the rate of inflation.

Just last month, his promise to grow the economy was dealt a major blow when it emerged that GDP fell by 0.3% in October.

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‘We Have Failed’: Lee Anderson Admits Tory Government Migration Chaos

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Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson has admitted his party has “failed” to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, despite Rishi Sunak’s pledge to end the journeys.

He said the situation was now “out of control” and that the Conservative government was to blame.

Anderson’s comments, in an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, followed the row over his claim that migrants who do not want to board the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset should “fuck off back to France”.

He said: “I’m not going to sit here and make excuses to anyone. This is out of control.

“We’re in power at the moment, I’m the deputy chair of the Conservative Party, we’re in government and we have failed on this – there’s no doubt about it.

“We’ve said we’re going to fix it, it is a failure.”

Anderson insisted the Tories had policies in place to tackle the issue, but he added: “I know it’s a bit hard for the British public at the moment to actually understand what we’re trying to do with the Rwanda flights and the Illegal Migration Bill and it seems very slow, it’s cumbersome.

“We’re up against it Nigel, let’s be honest. We’ve got the lefty lawyers, we’ve got the human rights campaigners, we’ve got the charities – everything’s against us, but I’m not making excuses.”

His comments are a further blow to Sunak in a week that was meant to showcase the government’s attempts to stop the boats.

Instead, they have been forced to deny plans to deport migrants to Ascension Island, while they also face legal challenges over the Bibby Stockholm, which has been dubbed a “quasi-prison” by opponents.

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