Nigel Farage has branded Labour’s pledge to “smash the gangs” a “complete disaster” as new figures show more than 40,000 small boat migrants arrived in Britain in 2025.
A total of 41,472 migrants arrived in the UK last year after crossing the English Channel – the second highest annual figure on record.
The Home Office confirmed today that no migrants made the journey on New Year’s Eve, continuing a run of no crossings over the festive period.
It means the overall number of arrivals last year finished nine per cent below the all-time high of 45,774 in 2022.
Reform UK leader Mr Farage said: “Smash the gangs is a complete disaster, the one in one out deal is a farce and the numbers coming over are huge.
“Many of the young men that have arrived last year will do us great harm.”
The total for 2025 was 13 per cent higher than the figure for 2024, when 36,816 migrants made the journey, and 41 per cent higher than 2023’s total of 29,437.
For much of last year, the number of arrivals was running at the highest level since data on Channel crossings was first published in 2018.
More than 40,000 migrants crossed the Channel in 2025
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But the pace slowed during the last two months of the year and there were long periods when no migrants arrived, including a 28-day run from November 15 to December 12.
The average number of people per boat rose again in 2025, continuing a trend that has been under way since 2018.
There were an average of 62 arrivals per boat last year, up from 53 in 2024 and 49 in 2023.
The Government faced increasing pressure in 2025 to tackle the number of migrants making the hazardous journey across the Channel, having won the general election in July 2024 vowing to “smash the gangs” of people-smugglers that organise the crossings.
Nigel Farage has branded Labour’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ a ‘complete disaster’
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Nearly 65,000 migrants have arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power.
The UK’s Border Security Commander, Martin Hewitt, tasked with curbing Channel crossings, told MPs in October that the number of arrivals in 2025 is “frustrating” but that work to stop the smuggling route was “always going to take time”.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act became law in December, which introduces new criminal offences and allows law enforcement agencies to use counter terror-style powers to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
In November, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also announced plans for a raft of reforms in what she described as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times” in a bid to deter people from coming to the UK and make it easier to deport them.
Under changes inspired by the Danish system, refugee status will become temporary with regular reviews every 30 months, and refugees will be forced to wait 20 years for permanent settlement in the UK, up from five years currently.
But the plans, which are yet to be introduced under legislation, sparked a backlash from a number of Labour MPs who branded the package “shameful” and echoing rhetoric of Mr Farage’s Reform UK.
Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the measures did not go far enough, adding that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was necessary to address the problem.
Both the Conservatives and Reform UK have pressed quitting the human rights treaty as a way to tackle illegal immigration, but Labour has insisted it will not leave the ECHR and instead seek to adjust how immigration cases are interpreted in UK law.
Nearly 65,000 migrants have arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power
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Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy also met ministers from ECHR member states last month, who agreed to consider reforming the treaty to address illegal migration.
International cooperation has also formed part of the Government’s strategy, such as through the “one in, one out” returns deal with France that came into force in August.
Under the pilot scheme people who arrive in the UK by small boat can be detained and returned to France, in exchange for an equivalent number of people who apply through a safe and legal route.
On December 16, border security minister Alex Norris told peers that 193 migrants had been sent back to France and 195 had arrived in the UK under the returns deal so far, aimed at deterring people making the dangerous journey across the Channel.
But the scheme has drawn criticism as being “no deterrent at all” by Mr Philp, amid cases of two migrants returning to the UK after being removed to France under the deal.
They have since been deported again.
At least 17 people died while attempting the journey last year, according to reports by French and UK authorities, but there is no official record of fatalities in the Channel.
The International Organisation for Migration has reported several more migrant deaths of 36 people, which are believed to be linked to attempts to travel from mainland Europe to the UK.
Reacting to the total number of Channel crossings for 2025, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Most men, women and children taking these journeys have fled oppressive regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan and brutal civil wars in countries like Sudan.
“No-one risks their life on a flimsy boat in the Channel except out of desperation to be safe in a country where they have family or community connections.
“It’s right the Government wants to stop Channel crossings but plans that will punish people found to be refugees are unfair and not an effective deterrent.”