Nigel Farage, has criticised the government’s response to the arrival of more than 700 migrants who crossed the English Channel on Saturday, December 13th. As the 737 individuals from 11 ‘small boats’ were confirmed as having arrived in Dover after a 28-day hiatus, 2025’s surge in illegal migration continued.

Reform UK leader Farage addressing the surge at a charity event in his Clacton constituency:

I said during the election campaign, “‘smash the gangs’ was never going to work”…And somehow people have been allowed to get away with it. The numbers are up. There are more hotels in use now than there were when [Labour] first came into power.

The UK total has now surpassed 40,000 arrivals. This contrasts with 36,816 known arrivals for the whole of last year. The cohort of 737 took advantage of favourable weather conditions.

For Farage, this also raises security concerns, warning: “

It seems barely a day goes by where we don’t see a serious sexual assault or rape being committed by a young man [from one of] these dinghies. And I’ve said, for a decade, that if you allow people who come from cultures where women aren’t even second-class citizens to come into Britain, beware of what the results might be.

The Reform chief added that current measures have failed to deter illegal crossings

There is no deterrent. There is no will. The ‘one-in, one-out’ policy has proved to be a complete farce. And Shabana Mahmood talks tough, talks the big game, but, of course, they won’t contemplate dealing with the Human Rights Act which came in under [Tony] Blair’s Government, which brings the European Convention on Human Rights into British law.

“The problem will get worse. The British public will simply get angrier” Farage added.