£500M BOAT GANGS' HUGE PROFIT OUT OF MISERY

Labour and Tories' battle of the boats

- David Williamson

CRIMINAL gangs behind the small boats scandal have raked in nearly half a billion pounds since the Channel crisis began, figures reveal.

More than 114,300 people have made the treacherous crossing since 2018, paying an average of £4,000 per head for each journey.

The amount of money made from the crisis has "skyrocketed" from just over £1million in 2018 when 299 people made the trip, according to Labour's analysis of small boat figures.

It says a record 45,755 people crossed the Channel in 2022, enriching the smugglers by an estimated £183million.

But the true amount earned could be even higher, because the analysis does not include cash paid to gangs by would-be migrants who were brought back to France by that country's coastguard.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "The Conservatives have allowed an entire multimillion pound dangerous criminal industry to grow up along our border over the past six years.

"Criminals are making big money from putting tens of thousands of lives at risk, and making a mockery of UK border security."

She pledged that her party's plan would "strengthen our border security, hitting hard at the heart of the criminal gangs, going after their whole network, including the money, in order to increase prosecutions and stop their dangerous trade in people's lives".

Last year alone, organised crime made an estimated £117,748,000 from nearly 30,000 people who came across the Channel.

Labour believes that since 2018, £457,288,000 has gone into the pockets of people smugglers.

Labour's intervention on small boats is the latest sign that Sir Keir Starmer's party intends to "park its tanks" on traditional Tory turf.