Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of “smashing records instead of gangs” after another 800 migrants crossed into Britain on Saturday.

Speaking to GB News, Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster criticised the Prime Minister’s efforts to tackle the nation’s migrant crisis, declaring “slogan isn’t strategy”.

According to Home Office provisional figures, 803 migrants arrived in Britain after making the illegal crossing in small boats.

The Labour Government had previously praised a 28-day period where no crossings were made, but now the figures are beginning to surge once again.

Delivering his verdict on the latest surge in crossings, Mr Foster told GB News: “It’s another milestone today, another record smashed rather than gangs smashed of 800 people. I think the highest single day ever in a December. We’re very near record levels.

“We’ve had slogans before, but slogan isn’t a strategy. And what’s quite interesting is numbers were actually coming down in terms of the approach towards the last general election, they dropped between 2022 and 2023 and then started to rise again.”

Comparing Britain’s efforts to those of US President Donald Trump, he added: “But the stark contrast between the UK and the US really stands. 2022 was the record year for small boats, but it was also the record year for unauthorised crossings of the US southern border.

“As we sit here today, crossings of the US southern border are down 95 per cent since the Trump administration came in. Meanwhile, the UK, with its smash the gang slogan, is seeing what we’re seeing in Dover every morning. So there is a model to solve this, but it’s not looking at Europe, it’s looking across the Atlantic.”

Reacting to GB News’s exposure of migrants clashing with French Police in the town of Grand-Fort-Philippe, Mr Foster said: “Well, certainly the impact for the citizens of the Pas-de-Calais has been a disaster, this sort of hosting of criminality doesn’t just affect the UK in terms of small boats crossings, but it means a range of quite dangerous individuals are operating in the Pas-de-Calais.

“There’s violence between gangs themselves, there’s evidence of when boats show up at some beaches, there’s then attempts at using force to get on them from those who don’t want to pay other gangs a fee.

“That’s why we’re also seeing the mood start to shift in France, and certainly there’s many people in northwest France who would be as keen to see this problem dealt with as there are here in the UK.”

He continued: “And whilst President Macron might not yet be thinking that with the elections coming up now getting closer in 2027, I can’t imagine that other candidates, we’ve already seen the National Rally make statements on this, won’t be thinking that actually, the next French President is going to have to offer a solution to this problem, not just hope that it will disappear over the Channel towards Britain.”

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Pressed by host Nana Akua on why the Conservatives didn’t do more when they were in power, the ex-Immigration Minister explained: “Well, certainly, I had frustrations about perhaps wanting to see us go further on some of our international law obligations that are being gamed by people who are looking to come here for economic migration reasons.

“Yes, we did have the issue of Ukraine and Hong Kong, few would argue that we should have done nothing in response to those instances, but also there were changes that had been planned in 2022 around the legal migration system, they were sadly lost when Boris Johnson ceased being Prime Minister.

“You’d have to have Mr Sunak on to ask exactly why he didn’t decide to take some of those things forward.”

He added: “And of course, you’re seeing now the actual impact of legal migration falling is because of some of the things that were done in the last few months of the Conservative administration that should have been done in an earlier stage. But also the public moods changed as well.

“I think if a couple of years ago we’d been talking about reform of international law obligations that have been howls across most of the media, the exception of GB News now, I think there’s much more recognition, both in the UK and actually on the continent, that we can’t go on like this.

“There needs to be changes, and sticking to pieces of legislation written 70 or even 80 years ago in direct response to what happened during the Second World War, is not a practical answer to a very 21st-century problem.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better.

“This Government is taking action. We have removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.

“The Home Secretary has announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in decades, removing the incentives that bring illegal migrants to the UK and scaling up the return of those with no right to be here.”

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