We've failed to stop boats in the Channel, admits minister

A MINISTER admitted today that the Government had failed to “stop the boats” in the Channel crisis as Labour and the Tories slugged it out on immigration on the election campaign trail.

- Nicholas Cecil

Illegal immigration minister Michael Tomlinson made the frank confession as his party sought to shift focus away from the election date betting scandal and onto migration. Speaking on Times Radio, he was challenged that Rishi Sunak and the Government had not "stopped the boats" which was one of the Prime Minister's five key pledges.

"That is right," Mr Tomlinson responded. "We have not." He insisted that "we have made progress" despite more asylum seekers and economic migrants having risked their lives to cross the Channel in unseaworthy boats so far this year, than in the same periods of 2022 and 2023. He added: "There is a plan and there is a deterrent effect."

He argued the plan to deport people who arrive in "small boats" to Rwanda would be a deterrent.