Keir Starmer Humiliated: GB News Halts Broadcast For Breaking 2026 Migrant Alert

Keir Starmer enters 2026 facing fresh scrutiny over migration after the first small boat of the year reached UK shores on Monday, just days into January.

Around three dozen migrants made the dangerous English Channel crossing in sub-zero temperatures, with conditions in Dover feeling as cold as minus seven degrees.

The arrival comes after Home Office figures confirmed 41,427 people crossed illegally in 2025—the second-highest annual total on record.

Critics say the numbers expose a widening gap between government pledges and reality, while ministers insist enforcement is accelerating.

Why 2025 Figures Matter To Starmer's Migration Legacy

The 2025 total marked a 13 per cent increase from 2024, when 36,816 migrants made the crossing, and a stark 41 per cent jump from 2023's 29,437 arrivals.

What compounds the Government's headache is the changing nature of these journeys: the average boat now carries 62 people, up from 53 in 2024 and 49 in 2023. These figures suggest not only rising volumes but increasingly crowded and dangerous vessels, a trend that has been accelerating since records began in 2018.

For much of 2025, arrivals were running at their highest levels since data collection began, testing the Government's resolve on an issue that remains deeply divisive across British politics.

The Home Office, responding to GB News's exclusive report, acknowledged the gravity of the situation.

'The number of small boat crossings is shameful, and the British people deserve better,' a spokesman said.

'This government is taking action. We've detained and removed more than 35,000 who are here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back. But we must go further and faster, and remove more of those here illegally, and stop the migrants from making small boat crossings in the first place.'

Political Pressure Intensifies Over Migrant Crisis

The political heat from the right has only intensified. Reform UK's Chief Whip, Lee Anderson, delivered a withering assessment of the Government's strategy.

'Is there any wonder that the illegal migrants will keep coming now this spineless, treacherous Government is now looking at building social housing for illegal migrants who cross the Channel,' he declared.

'This invasion is never going to end under this Government. The migrants will continue to arrive, our women and girls will continue to be attacked, our communities will continue to be under siege from backward cultures, and the decent, hardworking Brits will foot the bill for all this.'

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp struck an equally combative tone, arguing that the Government had lost control of British borders entirely. 'These New Year illegal immigrants show the Government has no control over our borders whatsoever,' Philp said.

'They are putting up illegal immigrants in hotels and allowing 95 per cent of illegal Channel migrants to remain here. The Prime Minister has admitted that the UK has no deterrent. No wonder illegal immigrants continue to flood in—and many of them go on to commit sex offences against women and girls.'

Philp's prescription differs markedly from Government policy: the Conservatives have demanded that Britain withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights and implement mandatory deportations within a week of arrival.

'The only way to fix this is the Conservative plan: come out of the ECHR and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. Then the crossings will stop,' he insisted. Whether such measures would achieve the deterrent effect Philp claims remains hotly contested amongst policy experts.

For Starmer, the new year has brought little respite. The political narrative has shifted from one of Government control and compassionate management to one of crisis and lost sovereignty, a dangerous position for any administration less than eighteen months into its tenure.