More than 600 asylum seekers crossed the Channel in small boats on Sunday – the highest number for a single day in 2023 so far.
The numbers are a major blow for Rishi Sunak, who last week insisted his plan to “stop the boats” was “starting to work”.
Speaking in Dover, he said: “When we said we would stop the boats, I meant it – and that’s what we’re delivering.”
According to the Home Office, 616 people made the crossing on Sunday, beating this year’s previous high of 497 on Saturday, April 22.
It means the number of crossings in 2023 now stands at a provisional total of 8,380, down from around 10,000 at the same point last year.
Sunak last week denied that the fall in the total numbers in the year so far had been down to bad weather.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: “The prime minister got over excited last month and declared victory in ‘stopping the boats’.
“With the weather improving and the number of crossings increasing, Rishi Sunak needs to roll up his sleeves and start doing the hard graft, rather than ploughing on with the headline-chasing, government-by-gimmick approach which landed him in this mess in the first place.
“In short, he needs to stop the boast and start stopping the boats.”
The PM’s spokesman said the number of crossings “fluctuate on any given day”.
“I think that when the Prime Minister gave his update, he was talking about a five-month average 20% reduction rather than a snapshot figure,” he said.
“So we do know that number of crossings fluctuates; equally we know that, on average, the enhanced work with our French counterparts means that you are now more likely to be intercepted and stopped if you attempt to make a crossing than succeed in crossing the Channel.
“So there is a great deal of work going on which is stopping these criminal gangs in their tracks.
“But, clearly, crossings are continuing and that is because we have not been able to put in place our full plans, and obviously there is a great deal of work across Government to that end.”