More than 10,000 small boat migrants have reached Britain since Shabana Mahmood became Home Secretary, after 2,000 crossings in just four days.
The grim milestone has been reached under Ms Mahmood more quickly than under any of her predecessors since 2022.
There were 621 arrivals on Thursday, 648 on Friday and 503 on Saturday, followed by 349 on Sunday.
It means 10,072 Channel migrants came to Britain in Ms Mahmood’s first 66 days in charge of the Home Office.
Under her predecessor Yvette Cooper it took 74 days to reach the same milestone.
She was moved sideways to the Foreign Office by PM Sir Keir Starmer after failing to get a grip of the Channel crisis.
Under Tory home secretaries the 10,000 point took 171 days under James Cleverly and 583 days under Priti Patel.
Only under Suella Braverman was the 10,000 mark reached more quickly, in 43 days in 2022 – the year which saw a record annual number of migrants amid a surge of Albanian arrivals.
One government source told the Daily Mail the timing of the mark being hit was ‘unfortunate’ as Ms Mahmood is said to be creating 10,000 asylum accommodation places in old army barracks and other sites.
More than 10,000 small boat migrants have reached the UK in Shabana Mahmood’s first 66 days in the Home Office – the second-fastest rate on record since the crisis began in 2018
The pace of arrivals seemed to be driven by gangs deploying larger boats – dubbed ‘mega-dinghies’ – with many now carrying close to 100 migrants, insiders said.
Traffickers have been able to obtain the dangerous bumper-size vessels despite Labour’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’.
The UK Border Force catamaran, ‘Defender’, picked up migrants mid-Channel on Sunday and brought them to Britain
Dozens of migrants disembark from the Border Force vessel at the Port of Dover on Sunday
Meanwhile, since Labour’s flagship ‘one in, one out’ returns deal with France was announced in July there have been 17,958 arrivals across the Channel.
But so far only 94 migrants have been deported, while a further 57 have been brought into the UK under the reciprocal terms of the deal.
Since Labour came to power last year 62,317 Channel migrants have reached British soil.
The ‘one in, one out’ deal was thrown into disarray last month after it emerged a small boat migrant came back to Britain after being deported.
The Iranian man’s farcical back-and-forth journeys saw him arrive here on August 6 – the day the deal with France came into force, and removed from Britain on September 19.
He later slipped out of a migrant shelter in Paris, where he had been housed, and headed back to the northern French coast, re-entering Britain on a small boat on October 18.
The unnamed man was finally removed – for a second time – 18 days later on November 5.
Other migrants deported under Labour’s scheme are also reported to have made their way back to the French coast to attempt a second crossing.
