Migrant milestone reached faster under Starmer than previous prime ministers
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The milestone of 50,000 migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has been reached just 13 months into Sir Keir Starmer's premiership – seven months faster than under his Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak, figures show.
The number of people recorded as making the journey across the Channel since the Labour leader became Prime Minister passed 50,000 on August 11 2025: day 403 of his time in office – or one year, one month and seven days since Labour won the general election on July 4 2025.
By contrast, the number of arrivals during Mr Sunak's premiership did not reach the 50,000 mark until the 610th day of his time in office, on June 25 2024, according to Home Office data.
This was exactly 20 months since Mr Sunak became prime minister on October 25 2022, and only a few days before the Conservatives lost the general election to Labour.
On day 403 of Mr Sunak's premiership – the point at which 50,000 was reached for Sir Keir – some 36,079 migrants had arrived in small boats.
A total of 10,532 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel during the 49 days of Liz Truss's premiership from September 6 to October 24 2022.
This includes 1,241 on September 9: the third highest number of arrivals ever recorded on a single day.
The first and second highest daily totals both occurred during Boris Johnson's premiership, on September 3 2022 (1,305 arrivals) and November 11 2021 (1,250) respectively.
Some 65,676 migrants arrived across the Channel over the course of Mr Johnson's three years, one month and 12 days as prime minister, from July 24 2019 to September 5 2022.
The 50,000 mark was passed on the 1,066th day of his premiership, June 23 2022.
The number of migrants crossing the English Channel per boat has been on a steady upwards trend since data was first recorded in 2018, when the average for the year was seven.
It then rose to an average of 11 per boat in 2019, 13 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 41 in 2022, 49 in 2023 and 53 in 2024.
The average for 2025 is currently running at 59 people per boat.
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