The day small boats crisis became a BIG boats crisis: Forty-nine foot mega-dinghy carrying 230 migrants - more than a Boeing 737 - reaches Britain

By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 23:00, 10 August 2026 | Updated: 23:00, 10 August 2026 Labour's attempts to tackle the Channel crisis were branded a 'complete laughing stock' on Monday after a record 230 migrants arrived on one dinghy. The huge number – more than the capacity of a Boeing 737 jet – crossed from France today, prompting the Conservatives to taunt Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for 'presiding over a complete and utter farce'. The record-breaking mega-dinghy arrived less than two weeks after Andy Burnham insisted the Government's plan was working. Measuring 49ft from bow to stern, it was 7ft larger than vessels which set previous records last month, and more than 10ft longer than a standard double-decker bus. People traffickers are thought to charge around £2,000 a head for illegal passage to Britain, meaning the dinghy could have made the criminals a staggering £450,000 profit. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'Labour's weak attempts at fixing the Channel crisis have turned the UK into a complete laughing stock. Shabana Mahmood is presiding over a complete and utter farce.  'She's handing over £660million of our money to the French, who are pathetically standing around on the beaches while hundreds of migrants embark on massive dinghies.' He also criticised the gendarmes' inability to halt such a behemoth, adding: 'This is now beyond a joke. The French authorities could easily have stopped a vessel this size from embarking in shallow waters. Labour's attempts to tackle the Channel crisis were branded a 'complete laughing stock' on Monday after a record 230 migrants arrived on one dinghy Your browser does not support iframes. 'I recently saw for myself French gendarmes shamefully standing by and doing nothing while illegal immigrants boarded in knee-deep water. 'Out-of-touch Andy Burnham claims there is no problem. There clearly is. If he was serious he would adopt the Conservative plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. Then the crossings would soon stop.' Official figures up until Sunday show that 15,242 small-boat migrants have arrived this year. And 2,773 – not including Monday's mega-dinghy – have arrived since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister on July 20. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said small-boat crossings should be declared a 'national security emergency', adding that illegal arrivals were 'out of control'. Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the mega-dinghy was 'nothing short of a national humiliation', adding: 'Britain's borders are now a standing joke with people smugglers who are laughing all the way to the bank, knowing they can operate with impunity.' Since smugglers began using the new generation of mega-dinghies last month, two are known to have reached the mid-point of the Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane, leading to migrants being picked up by UK Border Force and brought into Dover. The previous record was 165 aboard one vessel on July 23. A third dinghy, with 173 on board, triggered a major emergency when it caught fire early in its journey last week, and its occupants were returned to France. The new debacle came after a Home Office source insisted on Friday that Labour's plan to tackle the Channel crisis was 'beginning to bear fruit'. Monday's mega-dinghy was 'buckling' in the water and could have led to a tragedy, French rescuers said.  The confirmed 230 arrivals - pictured - is more than the typical capacity of a Boeing 737 jet Your browser does not support iframes. On Sunday French police did nothing more than watch as a baby and toddlers were carried onto a dinghy to England A lifeboat crew at Berck-sur-Mer said it was already carrying about 50 passengers when it was spotted heading towards a beach to pick up more. The SNMS team, the equivalent of the RNLI, said around 30 people ended up in the water during the rush to climb on board at 5pm on Sunday. Part of the group became cut off by the tide and had to be rescued, and the overloaded dinghy was described as 'buckling under the swell' as it headed towards the UK.  It was carrying 232 migrants until two asked for assistance and were taken to Calais. Also on Sunday, French police looked on as dozens of migrants climbed on to a boat off Camiers beach, south of Boulogne, with babies among the group. Last week UK officials confirmed traffickers were adapting their methods in a bid to circumvent Labour's 'smash the gangs' strategy. Labour scrapped the previous Conservative government's Rwanda asylum deal and has instead attempted to tackle the crisis through improved work by police and other law enforcement agencies.  But officials admitted it had led smuggling gangs to 'experiment' with mega-dinghies, potentially increasing the risk of a mass tragedy. Organised crime rings are also deploying co-ordinated dinghy launches from a wider area of the French and Belgian coast in a bid to evade detection.  Ms Mahmood signed a new security deal with the French in April that will see £662million handed over by the British taxpayer over three years.  A deflated dinghy is seen on the quayside in Dover, Ken after a record 230 migrants arrived after crossing the Channel Your browser does not support iframes. Life jackets for sale at the French sports superstore Decathlon in Dunkirk She said it was a 'landmark agreement' that would 'really arm us to go after the people-smugglers'. But Mr Philp visited a French beach last month and witnessed gendarmes standing by as small boats disembarked – and even refusing to arrest an apparent people-trafficker. David Goodhart, an immigration expert at the Policy Exchange think-tank, said of the latest mega-dinghy: 'This is a violation of territory and political common sense. 'Such an enormous boat crossing underlines the ineffectiveness of French controls, and our own Government's impotence.' He added: 'The solution remains the same: no one who enters illegally is allowed to stay. 'It remains a bewildering failure of international cooperation, and British diplomacy, that France does not agree to accept back anyone who crosses illegally.  'Andy Burnham should be using whatever charm or leverage he has with French president Emmanuel Macron to insist on Channel common sense.' The Home Office said: 'We are making progress, with the number of small-boat crossings down this year and the lowest number recorded for July since 2020.  'But we must go further, which is why we have signed a payment-by-results deal with the French to put 40 per cent more boots on the ground on French beaches.'