It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Prior to jetting on holiday to California with his family, Rishi Sunak had signed off on the communications plan to make this “small boats week”.
Major announcements would be lined up to demonstrate how the government is going to keep the prime minister’s pledge to stop migrants crossing the Channel from France in search of a new life in the UK.
Unfortunately for the PM, all it has done is highlight the dysfunction at the heart of his administration and demonstrate why he is no closer to achieving his goal than he was when he announced it in January.
As is customary in these situations, the government had lined up a so-called “Sunday for Monday” story announcing that they would be tripling the fines handed down to firms that employ illegal immigrants and the landlords who provide them with accommodation.
However, both The Times and Daily Mail - two newspapers not known for their antagonism towards Tory governments - decided instead to devote their front pages to rejuvenated Home Office plans to deport migrants 4,000 miles to Ascension Island if the Rwanda plan fails to get off the ground.
The source of this story is unknown, but it was clearly authoritative enough to lead two of the country’s most influential papers.
However, no sooner had the front pages appeared on Twitter than Downing Street was briefing that no such plans existed.
At Monday’s lobby briefing for political journalists, the prime minister’s official spokesman went as far as he could to make clear that the story was a load of nonsense.
If that wasn’t enough of a distraction for the government, plans to finally begin putting migrants on board the Bibby Stockholm barge moored on the Dorset coast also ran aground.
While 15 men did take up residence on the giant vessel, which is designed to accommodate around 500, a further 20 began legal action to stop them following suit.
That prompted Lee Anderson, the never-knowingly-underquoted Tory deputy chairman, to declare that “if they don’t like barges then they should fuck off back to France”.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk then found himself having to defend his party colleague’s “salty” language.
That story is now dominating the news agenda instead of what No.10 want people to be talking about today, namely government attempts to crack down on lawyers who help migrants make bogus asylum claims.
If he hasn't already, Sunak may soon come to the conclusion that spending time with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland is preferable to being in the company of his Tory colleagues back home in Westminster.