Migrants wave to a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel. (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has insisted migrants arriving in Britain by small boat should be deported instead of being housed in hotels.
He said crossings would “stop overnight if the government took the action.
Mr Lowe pointed out that 183 illegal migrants crossed the Channel on Friday, 104 on Thursday and 215 on Wednesday.
He said: “I don’t know how else to put this. It is pure insanity.
“Stop putting these men in hotel accommodation and start deporting every single one. Do that, the boats stop overnight.”
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At least 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024.
And 78 migrants died trying to cross last year.
In November, Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle told MPs that 220 hotels were being used to house migrants, 14 of which had opened and seven had closed since the July election.
Labour had pledged to end the use of hotels in its manifesto.
Dame Angela had said Labour was making the asylum system “fit for purpose” after inheriting “an unholy mess” – where fewer than 1,000 cases a month were being processed.
“We are now processing up to 10,000 asylum cases a month.”
