Nearly half of voters think the Government can’t control migrants arriving on small boats.
While the poll applies to British governments in general, it indicates a lack of faith in Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘smash the gangs’ policy to control the boats.
The survey came as the number of illegal migrants who have crossed the Channel since Labour was elected just over a year ago reached 50,000 – a figure reached more quickly under Sir Keir than previous prime ministers.
His first act upon winning the election was to scrap the Rwanda deterrent scheme that the Tories had banked on to get the boat crossings down.
The Government’s ‘returns deal’ with France appears to have done little to deter those determined to get to Britain, with more than 2,000 arrivals in the seven days since the ‘one in, one out’ scheme launched.
