Migrant crisis: More than 3,000 people cross Channel illegally since Labour came to power

More than 3,000 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel illegally since Labour came to power, GB News can exclusively reveal.

The milestone figure was passed as up to 400 migrants reached UK waters since yesterday morning.

GB News can reveal that more than 130 small boat migrants have been taken to Dover harbour so far today.

Shortly before 8am, the Border Force vessel Defender arrived at the Kent port with the first group of migrants.

GB News Kent producer counted 60 people who were taken off the Defender and escorted to the nearby Border Force processing centre.

Just before 10am, another Border Force vessel, Volunteer arrived in Dover with 73 people on board.

Today’s latest arrivals take the total number of migrants who have made the illegal crossing since the Labour Government came to more than 3,200.

The figure for the year so far is almost 17,000.

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Sir Keir Starmer promised to “smash the gangs” as part of an intensified effort to go after the organised criminals responsible for a multi-million-pound illegal enterprise.

On his first day in office, the Prime Minister scrapped the previous Government’s Rwanda deterrent scheme and branded it a “gimmick.”

A new Border Security Command is being established, with the Government promising to funnel millions of pounds of extra funding into the new body and provide it with hundreds of extra officers.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to see an end to the dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

“The new Government is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new Border Security Command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror-style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit.”