One of Rishi Sunak’s key pledges was to ‘stop the boats’. Those words have literally been broadcast across lecterns that the Prime Minister has spoken from.
However it appears the Government’s approach on this – as when it comes to tackling other challenges – simply isn’t strong or decisive enough.
Of course Suella Braverman had argued that the UK needs to leave the ECHR and its restrictions to properly solve this growing crisis.
The Conservative Government has not gone anywhere near that and subsequently we’ve seen a dither, delay and block of the flagship Rwanda scheme.
Unsurprisingly then, the boats have very much kept coming.
Indeed, this dangerous situation is now seeing boats cross on pretty much a daily basis again.
For years now we’ve heard tough talk and pledges about stopping the boats. Yet the cold hard reality is that on November 29, 64 people crossed from France to England on a single boat.
Then on November 30 a further 224 people crossed on four boats.
December 1 saw another 93 people come across on a pair of boats.
Then on December 2 followed up by a whopping 519 people crossing on eleven boats in a single day.
And on December 3 another 118 people came across on two boats.
Oh and by the way, November 26 saw 364 cross on eight boats as well. Get the picture?
That means almost 30,000 people have crossed on boats from France in 2023.
Illegal immigration has been allowed to run out of control for yet another year and voters are utterly furious.
This is reflected by the fact that increasing numbers of Conservative and Brexit voters are switching to Reform.
The Government’s plan seems to have been fixated on handing the French authorities huge amounts of money. The most recent deal that Rishi Sunak agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron will cost just shy of £500m, an obscenely high amount that seems to have done little to stop the crossings.
If the Conservatives want to win them back perhaps they should have listened the advice of Suella Braverman rather than sacking her.
Instead it seems we can expect more tough speeches and pledges – but another year where the boats just keep coming.
