Over 18,000 migrants have crossed on small boats this year. Crossings are rising as they hit record levels…

According to Home Office figures 703 migrants crossed into UK waters on 11 boats yesterday. That’s the highest number of arrivals so far under the Labour government…

Starmer’s spokesman just says “work is ongoing” on the “priority” of “smashing the gangs” and declined to give any timings on when the pledge would be fulfilled. Keeping in line with pre-election ambiguity…

Labour is naturally also claiming today that scrapping the Rwanda deterrent has had no effect on the number of crossings. Tick, tock…

The Channel migrant crisis continues to escalate under Labour, with the provisional total for crossings this year skyrocketing to an alarming 16,903. Home Office figures reveal that over 1,000 migrants came over in their boats in the past week alone. Today more migrants have been detected, promising to push the numbers even higher, with final figures expected tomorrow. It seems Guido hasn’t been the only one making the most of recent warm weather…

The number of crossings shattered previous records for the first seven months of a calendar year – a 15% increase in arrivals compared to this time last year (14,732). Guido is reminded of Rishi’s warnings that migrants were queuing up in Calais waiting for a Labour government. Their soft stance approach to what they call “irregular migration” is clearly not the effective deterrent Labour promised. Shock…

The i reports that the Home Office’s small boats chief has suddenly quit. Did he not fancy seeing through Labour’s plans?

Suella Braverman appointed Stuart Skeates to set up the Illegal Migration Operations Command last April and he was meant to stay on as “director general for strategic operations” under Labour. James Cleverly points out that civil servants know the command is “doomed to fail“. One says “many thought Stuart would be the new small boats commander.” Now the Home Office will have to interview for a new one, which won’t even take place until September. Giving crossings a free rein until the autumn…

Deputy Leader Angela Rayner brought back a familiar Corbynite line at a Citizens UK event last night, accusing the Tories of “scapegoating” refugees. Speaking to the audience, she revived the soft-stance line:

“Refugees scapegoated, while those in power fail to take responsibility for our crumbling immigration system…It has to stop. It has to change.”

“Scapegoating refugees” had largely faded from Labour’s rhetoric since the Corbyn era. Meanwhile, critics on the left have accused Starmer of siding with the right on the issue, all as he gets embroiled in scandal over wanting to return people to Bangladesh. It’s worth recalling that Starmer pledged to scrap migrant detention centres during his leadership campaign, though now he claims to be tough on immigration. His foregone 2020 campaign promises are never more than a few clicks away:

“I challenge the government to give EU citizens the right to vote and be properly citizens of our country … We welcome migrants, we don’t scapegoat them.”

His Deputy Leader is reviving the old rhetoric. Does Labour ever really change?

Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was chatting last night on GB News about Labour’s gold-plated plan for solving illegal migration. Which apparently involves letting in tens of thousands more people…

Labour says that it will process the list of arrivals since the Illegal Migration Act passed last year whose claim is designated by the Home Office as “inadmissible” – Patrick Christys pointed out that, according to estimates, somewhere between 90,000 and 115,000 people would be entitled to claim asylum if that processing was carried out without deportations. Reynolds seemed to let the cat out of the bag with his response:

“Well, what’s the alternative? Keeping them in hotels at the cost of 18 million pounds, £8 million a day, indefinitely? They’re going to have to reply. And if they haven’t got a right to be in the UK, they’ve got to go. And if they have a right to be in the UK, if we want to accept those people, we can integrate them into British society and they can benefit from putting something back into the UK rather than just be a cost in the halfway house we have at the minute.“

Labour has to repeal or disapply chunks of the Illegal Migration Act to force the Home Office to process the inadmissible claims. An asylum amnesty: that doesn’t sound much like a deterrent…