By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-08-12 07:56:14 | Updated at 2026-08-12 08:49:43
1 hour ago
Nigel Farage has said Andy Burnham "doesn't have the guts" to deal with the small boats crisis as the Reform UK leader took aim at the Prime Minister.
Mr Burnham has promised to “change our tactics” to tackle the gangs bringing migrants across the English Channel, after a record 230 people made the journey in a single boat.
The Prime Minister told GB News: "We will now change our tactics and we will be relentless in chasing them down."
However, Mr Farage has hit back, doubling down on his party's controversial plan to tow the boats back to France.
He told The Sun: "(Mr) Burnham has no more guts to deal with this than we had with Rishi, than we had with Boris Johnson.
"They tell the public what they want to hear. None of them have got the balls to actually deal with this. And I tell you what, I have."
When asked about potential resistance to his party's proposals from Emmanuel Macron's government, Mr Farage said: "Well, give us our billion quid back then. We’ve given them a billion quid to stop the boats.
"The French navy literally escorts the boats to the 12-mile line and hands them over to the British authorities.
"Under the international rule of the sea, if people are in peril, and frankly anyone on those insecure boats is in peril, we are perfectly entitled to take them back to the safest next place of land, and that’s France, the safe country that they’ve come from."
Mr Farage also suggested there would be more tragedies in the Channel if the boats were not stopped.
He said: "I want to stop the boats in the interest of national security. I want to stop the boats in the interest of the safety of women and girls.
"I also want to stop the boats to save lives, because people are dying, and those that come, many finish up working in criminal gangs, finish up, frankly, in the equivalent of modern-day slavery.
"We should be hanging our heads in shame over this."
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has come under presure
REUTERS
Labour has confirmed it will "redouble" its efforts to clamp down on illegal boats crossing the English Channel carrying migrants.
Home Office minister Anna Turley said despite one boat arriving on British shores carrying a record 230 people earlier this week, small boat crossings had fallen by 40 per cent.
While the former Labour Party chairman admitted there was a “long way to go” on the issue in light of the crossings by larger boats in recent weeks, she told the BBC: "I’m not complacent. When I see an image like that, it fills me with horror.
"We have to make sure that just as we are cracking down on them, they are finding ways to try and circumvent that, and we need to make sure we are adapting both in terms of our organisation with the French, and operations on the coast, but continuing to bear down on the gangs who are exploiting the system.”
Labour confirmed a further 13 hotels housing asylum seekers have closed as Andy Burnham’s Government continues the process of moving people into alternative accommodation.
Ministers are increasing their use of more "basic" sites, including former military barracks, having pledged to stop using asylum hotels completely by the next election.
The 13 closures are expected to save taxpayers £51million, and bring the total number below 160, the Home Office said, having peaked at around 400 under the Conservatives.
The list includes the grade II-listed Grosvenor Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Grand Metropole Hotel on the Blackpool Promenade, one of the two oldest hotels in the town.
Andy Burnham said Labour was addressing the issue
Mr Burnham has said Labour "will keep going at this issue" until small boat crossings are stopped, but did not commit to a timeline.
He added: "I’d rather promise to people what I know I can do and what I know I can deliver, and that is a relentless focus on this issue to deal with the public concern."
