The Prime Minister suggested he was “angry too”, after Home Office data showed 1,195 migrants arrived in 19 boats on Saturday.

Almost 15,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year (Image: Getty)

The public has “every right to be angry” about the Channel migrant crisis amid a record number of crossings, Keir Starmer has admitted.

The Prime Minister suggested he was “angry too”, after Home Office data showed 1,195 migrants arrived in 19 boats on Saturday.

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir’s words as “rubbish”, claiming that even Defence Secretary John Healey had acknowledged ministers had “lost control” of the borders.

Saturday’s figures were the first time daily crossings topped a thousand in 2025, and prompted Mr Healey to claim Britain had “lost control” over the last five years, implicating the former Tory government.

Taxi boats have become a common tactic (Image: Getty)

Alarming predictions have suggested as many as 50,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year.

Writing on social media site X on Monday, the Prime Minister said: “You have every right to be angry about small boat crossings.

“I’m angry too. We are ramping up our efforts to smash the people smuggling gangs at source.”

He claimed hundreds of boats and engines had been “seized”, raids on illegal working were up, and “almost 30,000 people” had been returned. But Mrs Badenoch hit back, responding: “Rubbish! Even the Defence Secretary admits the Government has ‘lost control’ of our borders.”

Small boat arrivals are “up 95% from this point in 2023”, she said, and claimed ministers had “scrapped the only viable deterrent”: the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan. Sir Keir had earlier insisted the Rwanda plan “didn’t deter anybody”, after his decision to scrap it was highlighted while he visited Glasgow for a major defence announcement.

He added: “I’m not up for gimmicks. I’m up for the hard work of working with partners, enhancing the powers that law enforcement have, in my determination to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade.”

The Prime Minister also signalled to journalists he had a duty to stop Channel crossings.

He said: “In relation to border security, I want to be really clear: nobody should be making that journey across the Channel and it’s our duty to make sure that we ensure that they don’t.

“We are working very closely with our counterparts in France and elsewhere to take further action in northern France, and of course, we are giving enhanced powers to our own law enforcement through the Borders Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs on Monday that criminal gangs will “likely” have made millions of pounds from crossings this weekend alone, and that further discussions with the French interior minister will take place this week on stronger action.

Speaking during Home Office questions, Yvette Cooper said: “The House will also have seen the disgraceful and unacceptable small boat crossings on Saturday. No one should be making these journeys. Criminal gangs will likely have made millions of pounds this weekend alone.

“The gangs are increasingly operating a model where boats are launched from further along the coast and people climb in from the water, exploiting French rules that have stopped their police taking any action in the sea. This is completely unacceptable.”