BRITAIN’S soft borders have let in nearly one MILLION illegal migrants as crime gangs ruthlessly exploit a “perfect storm” of cuts.

The scale of the crisis was exposed yesterday by a top policing chief and a former Border Agency boss.

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Rob Whiteman, who led UKBA between 2011 and 2013, said the numbers of migrants living illegally in Britain were far higher than officially claimed.

And he warned it would be impossible to ever boot most of them out.

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Mr Whiteman said: “The government does not have the resources or political levers to deport hundreds of thousands of people.”

His spoke out as Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill said swingeing cuts were leaving ports around the coastline virtually unguarded.

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Mr Underhill told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we’re in a lot of trouble and I have been raising it with the government for a year.

“You’re only as strong as your weakest link and this is our weakest link.

“To me it’s a perfect storm.

“We’ve got cuts to the coastguard, we’ve got cuts to the Border Force, and you know from (Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration) David Bolt’s report last year that they’re poorly trained and poorly deployed.

“Police marine units have been cut and Special Branch have been relocated to the cities.

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“So four of our lines of defence have been weakened because of cuts and actually I think we’re in a pickle.”

He added: “Talk to the public and they will tell you that they don’t know who’s coming in and out.

“If you talk to the harbour masters — which I do — they have no idea who’s coming in and out.

“If you look at Dymchurch, Chichester and the Iranians arrested in the Channel you’ve had three incidences in the past six weeks... and of course we know that the organised crime groups will always go for the weakest link.

“We know that Calais has been strengthened and they are starting to come in, in other ways.”