A total of 41,472 small boat migrants arrived in the UK in 2025 (Image: Getty)

Reaching British waters is no longer the hard part. Once here, the balance tilts decisively in one direction. Accommodation at public expense, legal aid on demand, years of appeals, and a vanishingly small chance of being sent home.

Deterrence has collapsed because the legal framework is weighted against enforcement.

Human rights law is no longer a constraint applied sparingly but has become the governing logic of the system itself. With the ECHR at the centre of decision-making, illegal immigration ceases to be an aberration and becomes structural.

Until that architecture is changed, nothing Labour announce will alter the outcome.

Immigrants cross the Channel because Labour refuse to deport them once they get here. Since Labour took office, just 5% of illegal arrivals have been removed. That is the pull factor, and until deportations start, the crossings continue.

Labour have confined themselves to cosmetic tweaks. Returns agreements that do not return people, overseas gestures that do not fix domestic enforcement, responsibility displaced outward while the core weakness remains unaddressed.

The French aren’t complying with Labour’s returns gimmick, the Germany deal is a farce, and Starmer still won’t close the door.

Restoring control requires a willingness to act. Only the Conservatives are prepared to do what it takes.

Through our BORDERS Plan, we will leave the ECHR and ECAT, ban asylum and other protection claims for illegal entrants, establish our removals force, increase the number of deportations to 150,000 a year, end the merry-go-round of appeals. This is the scale required to restore control.

Chris Philp is the Shadow Home Secretary