Andy Burnham has promised to be relentless in addressing small boat arrivals, while taking a veiled swipe at rivals he accused of playing politics with the issue. The Prime Minister made the comments during a visit to Dover.
During the visit, Mr Burnham pointed to a sharp fall in Channel crossings, noting that arrivals at this point in the year are 43% lower than last year. The provisional total for this year stands at 14,526, compared with 25,436 at the same point last summer.
"Clearly, progress is being made, but we’re not complacent," Mr Burnham said. "We’re just going to be relentless. People want to see this issue addressed. I heard that on the doorsteps in Makerfield."
He added: "But we also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well, because that also takes away the selling point of the gangs. So on every level we’ve got to cover this … crucially increasing the enforcement activity."
Tory and Reform criticism
Reform and the Conservatives have both seized on small boat crossings, with Nigel Farage regularly stoking fears of an "invasion" of migrants. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp spent the start of the summer recess filming videos about the issue, which turned farcical when he accused a French warship of firing 17 "live rounds" to intimidate him in the Channel.
Asked if he wanted to change the tone of the debate, Mr Burnham said: "We have to deal with the issue rather than play politics with the issue. Just deal with it head on, grip it, and then make the changes that will bring that reassurance to the public. The public don’t like the idea that the border looks like it’s not controlled. We need to bring back that control, but also we need to offer support for people who genuinely need it. It’s about changing the whole approach, and 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."
Deaths in the Channel
At least 13 people are believed to have died trying to cross the Channel so far this year, including four lives lost in 24 hours last week. One man died after a boat capsized off France's northern coast on Wednesday, and a one-year-old child was hurt. Three other people were found dead on board a boat that had launched from Dunkirk.
Enforcement and new measures
Mr Burnham visited Dover's joint command room, where officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Border Security Command use surveillance drones to track movements across the Channel. He was shown a small boat used by 96 migrants in May this year, along with a surveillance drone.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood visited NCA headquarters in Stratford as the Government said the number of officers tackling organised immigration crime has more than doubled from 376 to almost 800. Ms Mahmood said the plans were starting to "bear fruit" but she was determined to crack down on the factors pulling people to make the journey.
"I want to change the calculus. I want them to change their mind about whether they get on the boat in the first place," she said. Ms Mahmood has announced a series of measures to discourage arrivals, including a controversial proposal to make refugee status temporary.
Latest crossing figures
The latest figures show 326 people arrived on Saturday in four boats, bringing the number of crossings to 2,057 since Mr Burnham became PM on July 20. Wednesday was the busiest day for small boat crossings so far this year, with 752 migrants arriving in the UK.
Numbers tend to fluctuate due to changes in the weather, with peaks in the summer months, according to the Home Office.
