MP CHRIS PHILP: If the PM doesn't get a grip of this small-boats crisis, more will die

By CHRIS PHILP SHADOW HOME SECRETARY Published: 21:57, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 21:57, 30 July 2026 This week I witnessed with my own eyes the chaos unfolding on the beaches of France as illegal immigrants boarded small boats to cross the Channel. The Prime Minister has claimed that his plan to stop the small boats is ‘working’ but, within hours of him saying that, four people died after the busiest day for small-boat crossings so far this year. It’s clear that Andy Burnham not only doesn’t have a clue what to do about immigration but he doesn’t even want to talk about it. After a recent lull in crossings owing to high waves, numbers are now surging – 1,500 immigrants have arrived on the south coast since he became Prime Minister. The situation is out of control and, unless the Prime Minister and Home Secretary get a grip, more will die this summer. I’ve seen the scale of the problem at first hand. On Wednesday, I tracked a group of illegal immigrants from a woodland camp in northern France, along several miles of beach and then into the water. Eventually around 100 illegal immigrants, mostly young men from Africa, launched their boat as French gendarmes stood by and watched. This week I witnessed with my own eyes the chaos unfolding on the beaches of France as illegal immigrants boarded small boats to cross the Channel, writes Chris Philp Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp with migrants on board a small boat off the coast of Hardelot, France, as they attempt to cross the English Channel on Wednesday They could have apprehended them as they waited on the beach or embarked in knee-deep water but the gendarmes told me, on camera, that they had been ordered to take no physical action to stop immigrants. The smuggler who had organised this crossing to Britain disembarked shortly before the boat left and walked up the beach. I pointed him out to the gendarmes and asked them to arrest him. Astonishingly, they refused point-blank to do so. The truth is that illegal immigrants will keep trying to cross the Channel to Britain unless we end the system of incentives that motivate them to make the journey. Crossing the Channel on a dinghy is dangerous, but thousands of migrants a year are prepared to take the risk because they know that, if they reach the UK, they will be housed, fed, receive money and be able to work illegally here. And it is very unlikely they will ever be deported. They could have apprehended them as they waited on the beach but the gendarmes told me they had been ordered to take no physical action to stop immigrants, writes Chris Philp Migrants board a large smugglers' dinghy in an attempt to cross the Channel from France That is why the Conservatives have a plan to fix this. We would leave the European Convention on Human Rights, a move that would enable us to deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. We would ban them from claiming asylum, making modern slavery claims, receiving legal aid or making any court claim to stay. If illegal immigrants knew they would be removed from the country within a week, they wouldn’t come here in the first place. Australia did something similar 13 years ago and it quickly reduced illegal immigration by boat to virtually zero. Only the Conservatives have a proper strategy for dealing with this issue and, from what I saw this week, implementing it can’t come soon enough. Chris Philp is the Conservative MP for Croydon South