'Haven't got the backbone!' Lee Anderson blasts Labour after HUNDREDS of migrants cross Channel today

'Haven't got the backbone!' Lee Anderson blasts Labour after HUNDREDS of migrants cross Channel today

WATCH NOW:Lee Anderson blasts Labour for not ‘smashing the gangs’ on Martin Daubney's show

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GB NEWS

Susanna Siddell

By Susanna Siddell


Published: 25/02/2026

- 21:52

Such a huge surge is remarkable this early in the year

Lee Anderson has put Labour on blast after hundreds of migrants made the perilous crossing across the Channel to Dover today.

Almost 600 small boat migrants crossed the English Channel, the biggest one-day surge this year, while Britons bask in the glorious sunshine.


GB News's provisional figures have revealed some 590 migrants were taken to the Kent port of Ramsgate by Border Force vessels and lifeboats throughout the course of the day.

Just after 4.30pm, the Border Force vessel Volunteer arrived at the port with a final group of 56 migrants. But, with sunshine gracing Britain into the evening, Border Force patrols remain on standby.

With at least 4,500 extra immigrants waiting in makeshift camps in Calais and Dunkirk waiting to cross the Channel, GB News's Home and Security Editor Mark White reported today French authorities have only intercepted around 1,000 people since Labour got into power.

However, new figures have claimed French authorities stopped 22,476 migrants from crossing to the UK.

Fuming at Labour pouring £700million into a deal with the French, GB News star Martin Daubney said: "It's a total waste of money. The last Government couldn't stop the boats. This Government can't smash the gangs."

In response, Ashfield MP Lee Anderson shared a similar fury directed at the Labour Government's record on solving the small boats crisis.

Lee Anderson

Lee Anderson said illegal migrants must be detained and deported

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GB NEWS

He told GB News: "The thing is, Martin, they might have intercepted these people, but they've not stopped them getting on a dinghy because these people may try once, twice, 20 times, but eventually they will get to this country.

"Because when I was in Calais, the gendarme, the police, the army, the security services told us every single young male that was in the camps in Calais will at some stage get to our shores, be put in a hotel and then they'll be able to go through the asylum process and eventually claim asylum.

"It's absolute nonsense. Starmer said he would smash the gangs.

"It gets worse and worse and that spineless lot over there, those cowards over there haven't got the backbone or the political will to sort this out. It can be sorted out in a matter of weeks."

Zia Yusuf

Mr Yusuf gave his first speech as Reform's home affairs spokesman this week

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PA

He promised Reform would detain and deport any illegal migrant , via lorry or small boat, and no such migrant "should be allowed to roam our streets".

"They would stop coming in a matter of weeks," Reform's Chief Whip promised.

He said, once the migrants were detained in a secure camp to be deported to their home country or a third country, this would serve as an effective deterrent.

"Let's have them secure and detained. They would stop coming. Why would you come to a country, knowing full well you're going to be locked up?" he said.

Last week, party leader Nigel Farage unveiled Zia Yusuf as Reform's home affairs spokeman, who gave his first speech in the role this week.

He further set out to ditch indefinite leave to remain.

The policy frontman also outlined plans to established an Donald Trump-inspired deportation agency with the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a single time based off America's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

On the crisis, Mr Yusuf said "almost 200,000 people now have turned up on our beaches uninvited over the last eight years" and hit back at those who might be squeamish over how that is described.

"It is an invasion," Mr Yusuf told the People's Channel. "That's exactly what it is. And it's completely unfair on the British people.”

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