Despite UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to smash people smuggling gangs, small boat crossings to the UK remained at historically high levels last year with growing criticism from opposition figures that government measures have failed to deter illegal migration.

A total of 41,472 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in 2025, up from 36,816 the previous year and 41% higher than the 29,437 recorded in 2023. Since Labour came to power in the summer of 2024, around 65,000 migrants have reached Britain via sea.

On December 13th, 737 migrants were confirmed to have crossed in 11 small boats, after a 28-day hiatus. The arrivals pushed the annual total past 40,000, exceeding last year’s figure of 36,816.

The numbers keep going up, despite PM Starmer’s pledge to fight back against human smuggling in Labour’s “smash the gangs” program. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage scommented: “The numbers are up. There are more hotels in use now than there were when [Labour] first came into power.” 

Farage stressed that the continued rise in arrivals poses serious security concerns. “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. He added

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.

He argued that current policies have failed to act as a deterrent, noting: “There is no will. The ‘one-in, one-out’ policy has proved to be a complete farce.” Farage concluded “The problem will get worse. The British public will simply get angrier.”

The government has insisted that new measures will take time to have an effect. Martin Hewitt, the UK’s border security commander, told MPs in October that the level of arrivals in 2025 was “frustrating” but said efforts to shut down the smuggling route were “always going to take time.”

Labour has sought to strengthen enforcement through the Border Security Act, which became law last month, granting police new powers to seize and search migrants’ phones, jail individuals for up to 14 years for involvement in supplying boats, and prosecute those who put lives at risk through physical aggression or refusing rescue.

Ministers have also pointed to planned reforms of the asylum system, announced in November by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, aimed at deterring arrivals and making deportations easier. 

While the policy change promises to curb immigration, Mahmood is hardly the right person to advocate for it. The Home Secretary oversaw 10,000 illegal channel crossings in just 66 days in office, breaking the impressive record of her Labour predecessor Yvette Cooper.