The Reform UK MP has poured cold water on Labour’s bizarre new attempt to tackle soaring illegal Channel boat crossings.
Migrants are crossing in their tens of thousands across the English Channel (Image: PA )
Straight-talking Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has burst a hole in Labour’s new plans to tackle the tens of of thousands of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. The Home Office has come up with a bizarre new idea to tackle dangerous overcrowding on the unfit vessels by announcing plans to make carrying 80 or more on board a criminal offence.
But Mr Anderson was quick to sink the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s department’s idea, calling it “pathetic” in a post on X. The MP for Ashfield wrote: “In other words it’s ok if just 79 people get in one boat and arrive here. Just pathetic.” Ms Cooper is understood to want new powers in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to tackle migrants who overcrowd the dinghies.
She told the Mail on Sunday she was worried about overcrowding and she warned “If you storm a boat, trampling over the bodies of tiny children, you are complicit in putting other people in danger.”
Lee Anderson has criticised more Labour plans to tackle the migrant crisis (Image: PA )
A Home Office official told the paper: “If the smuggling gangs carry on cramming 80, 90 or even 100 people on to these flimsy dinghies, it is simply a matter of time before the bottom falls out of one of them, and we will see a mass casualty event in the Channel.
“We should not have to wait for that to happen before we take action, which is why we need to get this endangerment law on the statute books and start enforcing it against anyone responsible for putting the lives of women and children at risk.”
At least 24,000 people have already cross the Channel since January, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for migration via small boats launched from France. One man sadly died after suffering a cardiac arrest as he attempted to make the crossing on Saturday.
Speaking previously about the UK and France working together to tackle the crisis, Ms Cooper has declined to say how many migrants would be returned under a new deal between the two nations announced earlier this month.
Migrants attack police near the beaches in northern France trying to stop crossings (Image: Getty )
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Mail on Sunday: “The only way we’re going to stop the boats is to do what America are doing. Deport every single illegal immigrant upon arrival – either to their home country or a third country like Rwanda.”
Speaking during a debate in the Commons last week on Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity, Mr Anderson said those entering the country illegally were also more likely to enter the criminal justice system.
He said: “Illegal migrants crossing the channel are 24 times more likely to end up in British jails than British-born citizens, yet this Government allow thousands of unvetted males to enter this country who will commit horrific crimes like rape and murder, and there are some potential terrorists among them too.
“Does the Minister agree that it is time to forget the silly legislation that Labour MPs are bleating on about and to detain these people and deport them? We do not want to see any of these silly tags put on their ankles; just detain and deport them straight away.”
