Remember when Labour said they'd smash the gangs? The gangs are doing fine.

New Home Office immigration data published today shows over 41,000 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2025. That's up 13% on the year before.

Another 5,000 arrived via other illegal routes. There were 190,000 grants of leave on humanitarian routes. That's two and a half times higher than 2024.

101,000 people claimed asylum last year. Britain received the fifth largest number of asylum seekers in the EU area, behind only Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

The cost of trying to stop them? £175 million. That bought us 22,476 prevented crossing attempts. Do the maths: that's £8,000 per migrant stopped. And 41,000 still got through.

Labour scrapped the Rwanda scheme on day one. They said their approach would work better. The numbers say otherwise.

13% more crossings. 2.5 times more humanitarian grants. And every single one of those 41,000 people needs housing, healthcare, legal representation, and benefits.

But sure. The gangs are being smashed.