It’s been a turbulent few weeks for Keir Starmer as migrant crossings have surged once again, and it appears as though things are only going to get tougher for the Labour leader. On Friday afternoon (February 27), GB News issued a breaking news update about a convicted Afghan rapist. Earlier today, it was announced that Musafar Hotak was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of rape and sexual assault by penetration following a trial at Southampton Crown Court.

Now, the 55-year-old broadcaster announced some fresh details on the case, revealing that the 25-year-old criminal arrived in the UK by a small boat just one month prior to the horrific attack in 2022. He began: “The breaking news update is that this man, who was convicted for rape and sexual assault by penetration, arrived by a small boat in prison just one month before that life-changing assault and rape of a British woman.”

The court heard that the victim had left the Cafe Parfait bar in Southampton when she was asked to leave by the bouncers for being drunk. As she attempted to contact her girlfriend, the defendant, who was 22 at the time, started to follow her before a voicemail sent on the victim’s phone heard her telling him to stop.

The court was told that the next thing the complainant remembered was waking up in Hotak’s home with him lying on top of her and sexually assaulting her, then raping her. She repeatedly told him to stop, but she felt unable to prevent him because he was using “a lot of force”, the court heard.

After sharing the latest update, viewers flocked to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their thoughts online, with one user posting: “Well, things won’t change if you keep doing the same thing. Stop the f’ing boats! [angry emoji].” It comes after Home and Security Editor Mark White revealed that almost 600 migrants crossed the Channel via small boats in just one day, a figure far higher than expected.

He told Bev Trner: “In terms of the numbers crossing, this was a phenomenally busy day in the Channel. You don’t normally see numbers like this – close to 600 crossing – until we’re well into the summer months.” Although the weather conditions have been “atrocious”, around 2,200 small boat migrants have arrived in the UK since the beginning of the year.

Sources have confirmed to Mark that 2026 will likely be a record year in terms of the number of migrants entering the UK illegally. He continued: “We can tell you more sobering news of about 4,500 migrants who are currently in the makeshift camps around Calais and Dunkirk. Again, this is unusual.

“There is not normally that number of people in the camps in the winter because there aren’t as many opportunities to cross the UK. All these point to a very busy year ahead.”