Reform UK leader reacts as new figures show 41,472 migrants crossed the Channel last year

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)

Nigel Farage ripped into Sir Keir Starmer after it emerged that last year was the second-highest on record for small boats. A total of 41,472 migrants arrived in the UK in 2025 after crossing the Channel.

It is the second-highest annual figure on record after 45,774 people made the dangerous journey in 2022. The Reform UK leader said the Prime Minister’s pledge to “smash the gangs” was a “complete disaster” and his one-in, one-out deal with France was a “farce”.

The Clacton MP said: “Smash the gangs is a complete disaster, the one in one out deal is a farce and the numbers coming over are huge.

“Many of the young men that have arrived last year will do us great harm.”

The Home Office confirmed that no migrants made the journey on New Year’s Eve, continuing a run of no crossings over the festive period.

It means the overall number of arrivals last year finished 9% below the all-time 2022 high.

The total for 2025 was 13% higher than the figure for 2024, when 36,816 migrants made the journey, and 41% higher than 2023’s total of 29,437.

For much of 2025, the number of arrivals was running at the highest level since data on Channel crossings was first published in 2018.

But poor weather conditions mean crossings have slowed in the last two months.

Nearly 65,000 migrants have arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power.

It comes as the Prime Minister is facing intense pressure to get a grip on the issue.

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act became law in December, which introduces new criminal offences and allows law enforcement agencies to use counter terror-style powers to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.

In November, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also announced plans for a raft of reforms in what she described as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times” in a bid to deter people from coming to the UK and make it easier to deport them.

But Reform UK has called for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to tackle the crisis.