Labour has “lost control” of Britain’s borders following the arrival of over 1,000 migrants so far this year, the Tories have said.

The milestone figure was reached a week ahead of last year, when the same number of migrants had crossed by 28 January.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This latest milestone shows Labour’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ has had absolutely no impact on bringing down the numbers crossing the Channel.

“As the National Crime Agency said, an effective removals and deterrence agreement is needed to stop the boats, but Labour cancelled the Rwanda deterrent before it even started. That’s why small boat crossings are up 30 per cent since the election compared to the same time last year.

“Labour has lost control of our borders and are having to reopen asylum hotels as a result, breaking their manifesto commitment.”

Home Office figures show 129 people made the journey in two boats on Tuesday, taking the provisional total for 2025 to date to 1,019.

It means it has taken 21 days since the start of the year for crossings to top 1,000 – the quickest time on record that the milestone has been reached for any calendar year.

In 2022 – a record year for crossings – the number of people arriving in the UK after making the journey did not reach 1,000 until January 23.

And in 2024 the total reached 1,000 on January 28.

This time last year 621 people had arrived in the UK after making the journey compared with 280 in 2023 and 963 in 2022.

Crossings continued on Wednesday, with people wearing life jackets pictured being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent.

At least 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024. And 78 migrants died trying to cross last year.

Labour had pledged to end the use of hotels in its manifesto.

Dame Angela had said Labour was making the asylum system “fit for purpose” after inheriting “an unholy mess” – where fewer than 1,000 cases a month were being processed.

“We are now processing up to 10,000 asylum cases a month,” she added.

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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said earlier this month that he was “absolutely determined” to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats as the Government launched a new sanctions regime targeting people smuggling gangs.

Asked by broadcasters if the new scheme would make a difference, the Prime Minister said: “I’m absolutely determined that we are going to stop people crossing the channel in small boats. That is being run by gangs who are making a huge amount of money from the vile trade of people smuggling and getting them into those boats.

“I was chief prosecutor for five years, and one of the things that I learned then was, if you’re going to smash a gang that was driven by money, follow the money.

“That’s why, in addition to all the other work we’re doing here today, we’re introducing a sanctions regime which is very similar to the powers we’ve used against terrorists, which allows us to seize their assets, to stop them traveling, and to put them out of business.”

He added: “That is a really important step. It’s a world first. Nobody has done this before, and I’ve just spent the morning talking to our law enforcement about how we’ll work with colleagues to bring about this regime, put it in place and take yet another important step to smashing the gangs that are running this absolutely vile trade, and make sure we’ve got proper control of our borders.”