Labour ridiculed after blaming the weather for Channel migrant chaos

Labour has been ridiculed after blaming the weather for a record number of Channel migrant crossings this year. The Home Office said there have been 60 so-called red days – when crossings are far more likely – this year, compared to 27 recorded in 2024.

Officials said this coincided with 11,074 asylum seekers reaching British waters in small boats between January and April, compared to 7,567 the year before. Alarmingly for ministers, the report warned that 65% of crossings come in the second half of the year, between July and December, prompting fears of a record number of crossings this year. Former home secretary Suella Braverman said: “The only option that Labour have left is to shamelessly do a rain dance to try and stop the illegal flow of migrants into our country.

“It shows how they are out of ideas and how out of control our border has been since they scrapped the Rwanda deterrent.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The Labour Government seems to think that praying for bad weather is a good border security strategy.

“This is a weak Government, with no plan to end illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.

“They should never have cancelled the Rwanda removals deterrent before it even started.

“That’s why 2025 is the worst year in history for illegal crossings – not the weather.

“Blaming the weather for the highest ever crossing numbers so far this year is the border security equivalent of a lazy and feckless student claiming the dog ate my homework. This is a clear fail for our weak Prime Minister and his weak Home Secretary.”

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson said: “This Labour Government blaming small boat crossings on the weather is like blaming the housing crisis on homebuilders – it’s pathetic, and it’s a lie.

“Under Labour, small boat crossings have reached record highs – in summer, in winter, rain or shine.

“They can no longer hide these failures. The Conservatives left us with open borders, and Labour has only made things worse.

“Only Reform UK will end the ongoing invasion of our shores. We will leave the ECHR, deport foreign criminals, and make the migrant crisis a thing of the past.”

Former immigration minister Kevin Foster said: “It's a British pastime to moan about the weather, but to blame it for record small boat arrivals is like watching King Canute rant at the tide.

“Instead of looking for excuses, Labour should look for solutions and implement a serious strategy, not repeat empty soundbites."

The criticism comes after new research revealed the link between the weather and increases in Channel migrant crossings.

Some 14,812 migrants have crossed the English Channel in total this year, up from 10,448 in 2024 and nearly double the number from 2023.

The Home Office analysis stated: “The year ending April 2025 had a greater number of red days (190) compared to the previous year (106), and 81% more red days than the average number of days in the years ending April 2022 to 2024.

“Additionally, January to April 2025 had more than double the number of red days (60) compared to the same period in 2024 (27).

“This coincides with small boat arrivals being 46% higher in January to April 2025 with 11,074 people arriving to the UK by small boat, compared to 7,567 arrivals during these months in 2024.”

Home Office figures also revealed smugglers are cramming more migrants into small boats than ever before.

Some 33 boats crossed the Channel with more than 80 people on board in the year to April, compared with 11 in 2024 and just one in 2023. There were 345 boats with 60 or more people on board, compared to 164 in 2024 and 57 in 2023.

A Home Office source said: “The Tories allowed these criminal smuggling gangs to take hold along our border for six years.

“As Labour begins to crack down on the supply chains of these dangerous boats, these awful criminals are cramming ever more people into boats in order to make huge profits from crossing the channel.

“All the more reason why we should crack down on their vile trade and put them out of business for good.”

Britain has agreed to pay France £480million to stop more Channel migrant crossings.

This includes £175million in the current financial year – more than £480,000 every day.

Officials have warned that the Channel migrant crisis is “endemic” and that there is unlikely to be any drop in the number of crossings until 2026 at the earliest.

The Daily Express last week revealed only 8,347 asylum seekers have been prevented from reaching UK waters in a small boat this year. A further 184 were stopped on Saturday, as 1,195 successfully made it across the Channel.

This is an interception rate of just 38%, down from 45% last year.

The Home Office also confirmed more than 26,000 migrants were prevented from crossing the Channel in 2023, down from 33,791 in 2022.

And fury erupted over the weekend when French officers were spotted standing idly by, even taking photographs, as migrants climbed into a dinghy.

The total of 1,195 is the highest total in the first five months of a calendar year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government is restoring grip to the broken asylum system it inherited that saw a whole criminal smuggling enterprise allowed to develop, where gangs have been able to exploit periods of good weather to increase the rate of crossings for too long.

“That’s why we are giving counter-terror style powers to law enforcement, launching an unprecedented international crackdown on immigration crime, have prevented 9,000 crossings from the French coastline this year alone and have returned almost 30,000 people since the election.

“At the same time, we are cracking down on the false promise of jobs used to sell spaces on these boats – with illegal working visits and arrests up by more than 40% under this Government.”