ANOTHER day, another shocking statistic about the number of people breaking into this country.
This time it comes from a new Oxford University study that reveals the UK is home to up to 745,000 illegal migrants.
This staggering figure amounts to around one in every 100 people living here today.
And here’s the kicker — we now have more people living here illegally than any other European nation.
This damning report shows that the number of people living here illegally is now more than double France’s 300,000, and even tops Germany’s upper estimate of 700,000.
It’s official: People smugglers have never had it so good.
All this comes just days after we had yet another record for illegal crossings for this year, with 973 making the journey in a single day in small boats on Sunday, bringing the 2024 total to more than 26,600.
I’ll be the first to admit the previous Government failed to introduce anything to stem the Channel crossings.
Under the Conservatives, we were graced with seven Home Secretaries, year after year of record crossings, and a flagship Rwanda plan that was doomed the moment Rishi Sunak called the General Election.
I have always been of the view that the Rwanda plan should have been given a chance.
The point of the policy was never how many people we could send there, but the signal it would send to those tempted to make the crossing.
It was a deterrent and, quite frankly, the only one we had in our otherwise lacklustre arsenal against people smugglers.
But, given Prime Minister Starmer’s first course of action when he was elected was to bin the plan, you’d think Labour would have some grand alternative to replace it with.
After all, 14 years on the backbenches twiddling your thumbs gives you plenty of time to hatch a plan.
Instead, Starmer’s big idea has been to, firstly, pledge £84million for education and employment support in Africa and the Middle East to “address the factors driving people into small boats” — a feel-good policy the results of which we’ll never be able to truly measure.
Secondly, he’s set up a new taskforce, the Border Force Command, to “smash the criminal smuggling gangs”.
This sounds all well and good, apart from the fact the man Starmer has appointed to lead the new Border Command Force, Martin Hewitt, has admitted that smashing people-smuggling gangs won’t stop the boats if there is no deterrent in place.
Even if the unit succeeds in getting a few smugglers off the streets, with the enterprise being so lucrative it will be like the Hydra . . . cut one head off and two grow back.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has also set a target to remove 14,500 illegal migrants in the next six months. Ah! That old chestnut of setting immigration targets.
The last government only managed less than half of that in the entire year ending March 2024, and this was mostly down to the agreements signed with Albania.
This tinkering round the edges with policies that have broadly already been tried is as hopeless as it is useless.
And while those who branded the Rwanda plan racist and inhumane pat themselves on the back, our European neighbours are getting on with the job and waking up to the need for real deterrents.
In a plot twist, Germany is now considering using the very same Rwanda scheme, and the facilities we paid for, to process its illegal migrants.
Labour talk a big game on compassion towards those crossing the Channel
Mercy Muroki
Other European nations, long known for their open-door policies, are also starting to tighten the reins.
In May, 15 EU countries, including Finland, Denmark and Holland, signed a joint letter calling on the EU Commission to “think out of the box” to tackle illegal migration, including sending migrants to third countries outside the EU.
Those in this country who wince at the idea of third-country processing need to let the adults sit at the table and make the decisions.
Labour talk a big game on compassion towards those crossing the Channel.
But where is the compassion in going soft on a problem that sees dozens of people drown on our shores, taxpayers waste billions, and cultural tensions intensify?
Accommodating asylum seekers costs the government more than £8 million a day.
Over the last year, £5.42billion went on this (the majority of which was spent on hotels). This was over a billion more than the year before.
The Government keeps telling us it is going to make “tough decisions” in this parliament.
This is code for the fact we will be taxed even harder than under the Tories, with some public services inevitably having their budgets slashed to plug the now infamous “black hole”.
Taking away winter fuel payments from pensioners to save £1.4billion was only the tip of the iceberg.
If only the Government’s rhetoric, let alone actions, on tackling one of the biggest problems for voters was anywhere near as tough or decisive.
With the winter fuel backlash, the freebies scandal and the whole embarrassing Sue Gray business, Labour are currently in a mess.
If they want to show the millions of people who voted for them that they have got a grip, then actually curbing illegal migration would be a start.
