Andy Burnham lambasted for 'disgraceful' silence on migrant crisis as 'mega dinghy' reaches Britain

Andy Burnham has been handed a scathing takedown by the Shadow Home Secretary for his "disgraceful" silence on the UK's migrant crisis.

Speaking to GB News, Chris Philp hit out at the new Prime Minister for not saying a "single word" on the matter since coming into office on Monday.

Mr Burnham's continued silence comes as the first "mega dinghy" has crossed the Channel into Britain, carrying a record number of illegal migrants.

GB News exclusively revealed on Thursday that the vessel, carrying around 165 migrants, was taken off the Border Security Command vessel Contender at Dover harbour this lunchtime.

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Discussing the crossing on GB News, Mr Philp said it is "shocking" that the vessels have become so huge.

He said: "This mega dinghy is absolutely shocking. 165 illegal immigrants, either entirely or at least mostly young men, it is terrible, frankly.

"They are all, as we speak, going to be getting ushered into hotels by the Government, paid for at taxpayers' expense."

The Tory MP feared that "many" who arrive illegally go on to commit serious crimes in Britain, recalling the case of Rhiannon Whyte - a mother killed by an asylum seeker who was staying at the hotel she was working at.

Mr Philp told GB News: "I went to France last summer and I saw the kind of people who were crossing. Mostly young men, mostly can't speak English.

"We know that many of these young men who enter the country go on to commit very serious criminal offences.

"I've met Siobhan Whyte, the mother of Rhiannon, a young woman who was murdered by an illegal small boat immigrant.

"There was the case just last week of three of them who were convicted and sentenced for raping a woman on Brighton Beach."

He expressed his outrage at Mr Burnham's silence on the growing crisis in Britain.

The Shadow Home Secretary fumed: "This is incredibly serious, and it is disgraceful, frankly, that Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, has not said a single word about this question during his election campaign or indeed since becoming Prime Minister in his various speeches.

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"He clearly doesn't care about this issue, but I certainly do. I think Shabana Mahmood needs to urgently get a grip of this."

Challenging Mr Philp, host Christopher Hope argued that the "majority of the 200,000 migrants who crossed illegally" were under the "Tory Party's watch".

He responded: "Well, since the general election, I think 76,000 have crossed, that is more than under any other Prime Minister.

"There is a solution to this, we've got a new position on this issue under new leadership, and that is we need to leave the ECHR.

"That would enable us to deport all illegal arrivals within a week back to their country of origin, if possible, or a safe third country if not, with no asylum claim and no court proceedings whatsoever.

"Those 165 people should be on a bus to Gatwick Airport and being flown out of the country immediately, but instead they're going to be on a bus to a hotel."

Taking aim at Sir Keir Starmer's record in tackling the crisis, Mr Philp concluded that the strategy to "smash the gangs" has become "laughable".

He said: "The claim to smash the gangs is clearly laughable and all that Keir Starmer and the Labour Government appear to have succeeded in doing is replacing small boats with enormous boats.

"And it's not a sign of success that the people smugglers are now ferrying 165 immigrants over in one go.

"We're paying the French over half a billion pounds, and yet the French police were literally standing there right next to that boat on the French beach, letting it just sail away.

"They could easily have punctured it, they could easily have stopped it embarking, but they chose not to."

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