Fresh pressure on Rishi Sunak as figures show more small boat crossings this June up on last year

Fresh pressure is mounting on Rishi Sunak over his ‘Stop the Boats’ plan after new figures showed the number of Channel crossings by people in small boats so far this month is higher than the number for June last year.

Some 312 people were detected making the crossing on Thursday, the Home Office said. It brings the cumulative number for the month to 3,303: higher than the 3,140 recorded across all of June 2022.

The total number of arrivals so far this year remains below the equivalent number at this point last year.

Just over 11,800 people had made the crossing by June 22 2022 – nearly 1,000 higher than the 10,913 detected so far in 2023.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said stopping crossings by small boats is one of his five priorities for the year, along with cutting NHS waiting lists, growing the economy, halving inflation and reducing the national debt.

Rishi Sunak insisted he is ‘absolutely confident’ he can fulfil his pledge to halve the rate of inflation by the end of the year (Kim Cheung/PA) (PA Wire)

The June figures will be another blow for the Prime Minister who has staked his premiership on voters judging him on his five priorities and recent polling suggests they think each of them is going badly.

More than 80% of people in a survey by YouGov this week said he was failing on reducing inflation and cutting NHS waiting lists.

Their verdicts were nearly as bleak on the remaining three – to “stop the boats”, get national debt falling and to grow the economy and spread opportunity.

The Prime Minister urged voters at an event on Thursday to “hold me to account” in the coming months on the five priorities.

On inflation, he insisted he is “absolutely confident” he can fulfil his pledge to halve the rate of inflation by the end of the year, despite a blow to the contrary.

The Bank of England again hiked interest rates adding to the mortgage misery on Thursday in a bid to tackle inflation which has stuck at 8.7%. Mr Sunak needs to get it to around 5% to live up to his promise.

The poll of 2,294 Britons on Tuesday and Wednesday poll suggested 76% of Britons believe he is doing badly on quickly removing asylum seekers who cross the Channel on small boats. Some 6% said he was doing well.