Britain’s small boats crisis could be stopped completely “within two weeks” if “British authorities were able to return migrants to France”, Mark White has suggested.
Detailing the latest exclusive investigation into the illegal migrant crisis, the GB News Home and Security Editor said hundreds are currently making the journey across the Channel.
New footage filmed by GB News shows illegal migrants being taken to the Kent port of Ramsgate, having crossed into the UK.
GB News can also confirm that early this morning, a total of 10 migrant boats were launched by criminal gangs from French beaches.
Today’s arrivals are likely to take the 2026 total so far to well over 2,000, higher than the totals at this point in both 2024 and 2025.
Discussing the latest small boat crossings, Mark told Britain’s Newsoom hosts Miriam Cates and Andrew Pierce of a “potential” solution to the crisis, in the form of a French political figure.
Mark told GB News: “Jordan Bardella, who’s the probable candidate in the French presidential elections next year, if he wins, he says he will allow the British authorities to return migrants to France.
“If he did that, it would stop the small boats crisis within a week or two.”
Mark White has revealed how the UK’s illegal migrant crisis could be resolved ‘within weeks’
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He explained: “Because at the moment, you’re paying a few thousand pounds to get on a migrant boat and cross the Channel in the certain knowledge that if you make it to UK waters, you’ll be picked up by the British and you’ll be taken into the asylum system.
“Because well over 98 per cent of those that cross go on to claim asylum. So you go into the system, the vast majority are allowed to remain in the UK either by being granted asylum or even if they’re refused, they’re often from countries where you can’t return them to anyway.
“If the situation was that you crossed into UK waters, you were picked up by Border Force and immediately returned to France, who’s going to pay £3,000 to a people smuggler, when you know that you’re only going to end up in the location you first set off from? So it would break the business model.”
Highlighting the impact of the migrant crisis on the coastal French towns, Mark stressed that there is an “imperative” for the French Government to act in support of them as well as the UK.
Many illegal migrants have already arrived in the latest small boat arrivals
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GB NEWSMark said: “There must be an imperative for the French government to do this for the long suffering people in Calais and Dunkirk, and we’re told, by the way, there are 4,500 migrants at the moment in these makeshift camps waiting for their turn to cross to the UK.
“While they’re there, the criminality in those locations is very significant indeed. There’s vandalism, regular thefts, clashes with the police as the police on occasion try to stop the migrants from crossing, and then you get disorder in those communities. It is miserable.”
He added: “As much as we suffer, and of course we do in this country, the fallout from the migrant crisis for these poor communities around Calais and Dunkirk is awful.”
Questioned why the Labour Government is “paying any money at all” to the French to help stop the boats, Mark said it is their “responsibility” to protect the borders whether the UK pays them or not.
Mark told GB News that the migrant crisis is proving ‘miserable’ for both the UK and the French coastal towns
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He concluded: “£700 million already given to the French to try to solve this crisis, when it is actually their responsibility to look after the migrant crisis within their own borders, and to deal with any of these boats that get into the water in French waters.
“That’s nothing that we should have to intervene to give them even more money to do what is an ineffective job in the Channel in the first place. That’s their responsibility to deal with that.
“The negotiations are underway about the next settlement to give to France, and clearly the calls are growing, and understandably so for the UK Government to rein back on the money that they’re giving the French.”
In a statement, a Home Office spokesman said: “This Government is bearing down on small boat crossings. We have stopped 40,000 crossing attempts since this Government came into office through our joint work with the French.
“We have removed or deported almost 60,000 people who were here illegally. Our pilot deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.
“The Home Secretary has also announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times, removing the incentives that bring illegal migrants to the UK and scaling up the return of those with no right to be here.”