Britain sends back more Christmas presents than it does small boat arrivals, Tory analysis claims

Conservatives warn of a lack of ‘deterrent’ to stop crossings (Image: Getty)

Christmas presents will be returned at a faster rate than people who came to the UK illegally on small boats are being removed, the Conservatives have claimed. An analysis of Home Office data found that more than 57,400 people had come to the UK by small boat since Labour came to power but only 2,852 migrants who arrived in the UK this way had been removed on Sir Keir Starmer’s watch by the third quarter of 2025.

The Conservatives said this removal rate of around 5% was lower than that for returning Christmas gifts. The consumer organisation Which? found in 2024 that 6.5% of presents were returned. Kemi Badenoch’s party boasts it would return “every illegal arrival within a week” if back in power.

The Tories warn the low return rate has direct implications for border security, stating: “Illegal immigrants know the chances of removal are vanishingly small under Labour – there is no deterrent to crossing the Channel.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the returns department at a large high street store would be “working harder” than the Home Office.

He said: “Only 5% of illegal small boat arrivals have been removed under Labour. The other 95% are still here, because Labour has no deterrent and no backbone.

“The Conservatives would fix it by removing every illegal arrival within a week. Through our Borders plan, we will leave the [European Convention on Human Rights] and [the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings], 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.”

The Tories point to the number of people in “dispersal accommodation” climbing from 61,778 in June 2024 to 66,232 by the end of September 2025.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wants radical action on border security (Image: PA)

A Labour source said: “This Labour Government has returned nearly 50,000 illegal migrants since taking office – around a quarter more than the Tories managed. The one thing the British public really don’t want to see returned is a Tory Government.”