Channel crossings under Starmer hit new milestone - as Labour vows to tackle migration

Labour is acceptable to people its program to tackle migration adjacent week - arsenic the fig of radical who person crossed the Channel nether Sir Keir Starmer is understood to person deed a caller milestone.

In the aboriginal hours of this morning, Sky News understands 2 tiny boats were picked up successful the Channel with dozens of migrants connected board, taking the fig of crossings since July to much than 20,000.

These are the archetypal crossings since 16 November.

Before then, 19,988 crossings had been recorded since Labour won the predetermination connected 4 July.

The full for the year, not including past night, is 33,562, according to authoritative figures.

Government curate Pat McFadden told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the UK "will ever request migration" but that has to beryllium balanced with grooming the British workforce truthful "you're not implicit reliant connected immigration".

He said Labour would not beryllium mounting nett migration targets but volition people a program this coming week to trim some ineligible and amerciable migration.

The UK's nett migration - the quality betwixt radical coming to unrecorded successful and leaving the UK - for past twelvemonth (the twelvemonth up to June 2023) was revised up this week to 906,000, making it the caller highest twelvemonth connected record.

The latest figures, successful the twelvemonth to June 2024, recovered nett migration had fallen by 20% from the erstwhile twelvemonth to an estimated 728,000.

"Numerical targets connected migration person not had a blessed past successful caller years," Mr McFadden said.

"You mightiness retrieve David Cameron saying that helium wanted to trim it to the tens of thousands."

He added: "Fear not, the papers that we're going to people volition speech astir migration, some ineligible and illegal.

"We've acceptable up a new, unafraid borderline command, which we said we would astatine the election.

"We person got a caller returns statement with Iraq. We've accrued the fig of returns. We've published our Welfare To Work paper."

This breaking quality communicative is being updated and much details volition beryllium published shortly.

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