The first fortnight of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government appears to indicate that his administration, like those before his, will once again be overshadowed by the migrant crisis in the English Channel, with over 2,000 illegals arriving on British shores since he took power just two weeks ago.
A further 326 illegal migrants successfully crossed the Channel from the French coastline on Saturday in people-smuggler-coordinated small boats, taking the total number since Burnham was installed in Downing Street by the left-wing Labour Party last month to 2,057.
In comparison, some 1,962 migrants were recorded crossing the Channel illegally during the same time period in 2025, ITV reported. While the modest increase doesn’t show a sudden rapid leap, it would appear to rubbish the insistence by Britain’s governing Labour Party and its new leader Andy Burnham that “the plan is working”.
The continuing border control crisis under Burnham saw the busiest day of the year in the Channel on Wednesday, with 752 migrants being brought ashore in 24 hours.
Indeed, the new prime minister has backed that the plan enacted by his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer and has noted that crossings are currently down over last year, with around 14,526 having made the journey since the start of the year.
However, clearly concerned over the potential of the issue to dominate press coverage during his critical first days in office, Burnham has nevertheless vowed to step up efforts to combat the crisis.
Appearing at the migrant landing hotspot of Dover over the weekend, the Prime Minister said that he would be “relentless” in efforts to stem the tide of boat migrant arrivals. But his words suggested he doesn’t truly believe there is a problem, and the only challenge facing the government is one of perception, that the public feel the border “looks like” it isn’t being managed.
“The public don’t like the idea that the border looks like it’s not controlled,” Burnham said. “We need to bring back that control, but also we need to offer support for people who genuinely need it.”
“Slowly but surely we are putting in place those building blocks of a very different approach to this issue. It’s working, but there’s more to be done.”
The previous government of Sir Keir Starmer — who was unceremoniously ousted in a bloodless Westminster insider coup by his own party — was to “smash” the people smuggling gangs operating on both sides of the English Channel.
This came after Starmer axed the previous plan of sending illegal boat migrants immediately to processing centres in Rwanda, a scheme developed under the Tories, which was prevented from taking form due to obstructionist open borders lawyers in Britain and a controversial intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), a globalist institution that the UK remains a part of despite Brexit as it is technically a separate institution from the European Union.
Yet, in a recent turnaround, the European Parliament passed a proposal to allow member states to send illegals to asylum centres in third-party countries, potentially clearing the way for EU nations to use the very same centres in Rwanda that were previously earmarked for illegals from Britain.
Opposition leader Nigel Farage has argued that the strategy of “smashing the gangs” is ultimately futile, as other criminals will simply fill their space due to the lucrative nature of people smuggling. Farage’s Reform Party has alternatively said that the UK should leave the ECHR to take back control of its borders, deport all illegals living in the UK, and bar foreigners from collecting welfare benefits to reduce the pull factors driving migrants to Britain. On top of that, the party has suggested using the Royal Navy in the English Channel to prevent further migrants from arriving.
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