Defence Secretary Admits UK Has ‘Lost Control of Borders’ as 1,200 Cross the Channel

The UK has “lost control of its borders” over the last five years, according to Defense Secretary John Healey, who didn’t hold back as he laid into the previous Conservative government for their handling of the small boats crisis. His comments came after a record-breaking day in the Channel, where more than 1,100 people arrived in 18 separate boats – the highest daily figure so far this year.

Healey spoke to Sky News, describing the scenes of overcrowded, flimsy boats launching from the French coast as “pretty shocking”. Saturday’s crossing figures blew past the previous high of 825 in a single day last month, painting a grim picture of the growing crisis.

Photos taken in Gravelines, a coastal town in northern France, showed police apparently standing by as migrants launched boats into the water. This has sparked outrage, especially given that France agreed back in February to change its laws to allow interception of boats in shallower waters. That change, however, still hasn’t been properly rolled out, reported Metro.co.uk.

Of the 1,378 people who attempted the crossing on Saturday, only 184 were intercepted or rescued – a figure that’s raising serious questions about enforcement and cooperation on both sides of the Channel.

Healey insisted that for the first time, the UK has the level of cooperation it needs from France, and that the legal groundwork is there. But he admitted it’s not yet being used. “They’re not doing it, but for the first time we’ve got the level of cooperation needed, we’ve got the agreement that they will change the way they work,” he said. “And our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation, so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.”

He didn’t sugarcoat the scale of the issue either. “Truth is, Britain’s lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration,” he told Sky News.

The UK is already spending big in an attempt to stem the flow. Under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the government agreed to send £480 million to France over three years in exchange for help in reducing crossings. But with numbers like these, many are wondering what exactly that money is achieving.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage chimed in on social media, claiming that “well over 1,000” of those who arrived on Saturday were “young males” and warning that “our country is in peril.” Where he got the breakdown from isn’t clear, but it didn’t stop the post from going viral.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp didn’t hold back either. He slammed the government’s failure to tackle smuggling gangs, calling their promises “in tatters” and labelling the decision to scrap the Rwanda deportation plan a “catastrophic mistake”. He also didn’t mince words about France’s role in all this, accusing them of “endangering lives and breaching their international law obligations”.

While the political back-and-forth continues, the boats just keep coming.

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