More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister, Home Office data has confirmed.

New figures published on Monday shows 122 people made the journey on Sunday in two boats.

It means 20,110 asylum seekers have arrived since the Labour leader walked into Number 10 in July.

The latest crossings come as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to make a statement on immigration in the Commons on Monday afternoon.

There were 50,637 arrivals during Rishi Sunak‘s 20-month premiership, which began on October 25 2022.

It took around eight-and-a-half months for migrant crossings to top 20,000 after Mr Sunak became prime minister.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told ConservativeHome this morning: “This simply has to stop.

“A nation that cannot control who comes in does not have a future. Labour made a huge mistake when they scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it even started.

“As a consequence, small boat crossing are up 23 per cent since the election compared to the same period last year and they have added 6,000 illegal immigrants to expensive hotel accommodation.

“We will need an effective deterrent, equivalent to Rwanda. If anyone coming here illegally knows that they will be near-immediately removed, then they won’t bother to try in the first place.

“This approach worked in Australia ten years ago as part of their successful Operation Sovereign Borders, which saw their Illegal Maritime Arrivals (as they called them) drop from 50,000 a year to zero in short order.

“And we will need to make sure that the legal architecture is right. People coming here should not be entitled to benefits, including housing, until they have themselves made a meaningful financial contribution to our society.

“We will also conduct a full review of the operation of the ECHR and Human Rights Act 1998, with all the options firmly on the table.

“The ability of our democratically elected Government to control our borders and decide who stays here is fundamental, and is not up for debate. We cannot allow supranational obligations to fetter that essential sovereign right.

“We know Labour can’t be trusted to control our borders. Besides scrapping Rwanda before it started and putting 6,000 extra illegal immigrants in hotels in a matter of weeks, Starmer himself once said he thinks immigration law is “racist”.

“He believes in open borders.”

Labour sources continued to lay blame at the door of previous Conservative administrations for failing to curb Channel crossings, vowing the new Government will “not repeat those same mistakes, and nor will we let the Tories forget them”.

The latest crossings are the first since November 16, marking a 14-day hiatus in activity amid bad weather.

The arrivals take the provisional total for the year so far to 33,684.

The Home Office splurged £5.38bn on accommodation and support for asylum seekers in the year to June 2024 – up £1.43bn from the year before.

Ministers were on Thursday under intense pressure to “end the madness”, with pensioners set to be clobbered this Winter by the axing of the winter fuel payments and farmers facing financial ruin due to tax hikes.

Home Office spending on asylum rose by £1.43 billion, up 36% from £3.95 billion in 2022/23 to £5.38 billion in 2023/24.

It is more than four times the equivalent figure for 2020/21 (£1.34 billion) and nearly 12 times the total a decade ago in 2013/14 (£0.45 billion).

The total covers all Home Office asylum costs, including direct cash support and accommodation, plus wider staffing and other related migration and border activity.

New figures, published by the Home Office, also revealed the number of migrants living in hotels has increased since Labour came to power.

Some 29,585 asylum seekers were staying in taxpayer-funded hotel rooms, as of June 30.

But this has increased to 35,651, it has emerged.

A total of 133,409 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of September 2024.

This is up 12% from 118,882 at the end of June 2024, but down year on year by 19% from 165,411 at the end of September 2023.

The number peaked at 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 83,888 at the end of September, up from 76,268 at the end of June, but down year-on-year by 33% from 124,461.