Burnham blames Brexit for small boats crisis

Andy Burnham has blamed Brexit for the small boats crisis. The Prime Minister argued that the arrival of around 213,000 illegal migrants across the Channel was a consequence of Britain leaving the EU. On Monday, Mr Burnham told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The reason the small boat crisis has arisen is we can’t return people and we have people knowing we can’t do that in the same way that we used to be able to.” Small boat crossings were first detected at the end of January 2018, two years before Britain left the EU . The Conservative government at the time declared the situation a “major incident”. As part of Brexit, the UK left the EU’s Dublin Regulation, which offers countries the right to send illegal migrants back to the first safe EU country in which they landed. However, in 2019 – the final year that the regulation applied before the end of the Brexit transition period – 714 people were transferred into the UK under the convention, while just 263 people were transferred out to other EU countries. In 2016 and 2017, 1,019 asylum seekers were transferred to the UK from other countries, with only 676 returns to other European nations. Between August 2025 and October of this year, the Government operated a one in, one out pilot scheme with France, but only about 1,500 people were removed through the policy. At the weekend, Mr Burnham opened the door to freedom of movement with the EU and Britain needed to have an “evidence-based debate” about the issue. In his first live television interview since entering Downing Street 99 days ago, Mr Burnham was asked whether he would accept the policy, which would allow every EU citizen to move to the UK and vice versa. He said: “I didn’t say that in the discussion. What I said is we need to be honest about how it’s changed things in the last decade. “We have a situation now where longer-term permanent migration has replaced freedom of movement. In the past, it was a revolving door, people would spend two or three years.” He added: “I think we need to be honest about these things, and not say we can’t even have a conversation about them.” Mr Burnham’s comments will be seen as another attempt to justify pursuing a closer relationship with Brussels. The number of migrants arriving by small boat increased rapidly during the Covid pandemic . With very little freight traffic crossing the Channel, migrants who had previously hidden in lorries were drawn to small boats instead. Illegal crossings have fallen by 40 per cent from last year, but people-smuggling gangs have stepped up their efforts in recent months, using a range of routes. Last month, 260 migrants crossed the Channel on a 15m “mega-dinghy” . Boats have since landed in Gosport in Hampshire and Dover in Kent. Mr Burnham also reiterated his position that the UK should rejoin the EU in his lifetime, although he claimed the British public would have the final say. Challenged on whether he wanted to rejoin the bloc, he replied: “I’ve said I’m going to be honest and in my lifetime I would like to see that happen. “But I am not going to move ahead of the public and I am not going to dictate in terms of my own opinions here. You have to make sure the British public are the bosses.” The Prime Minister used his speech at the Labour Party conference to claim that Brexit had “done more harm than good” . He will also use a summit with the EU next month to set out options for the future of the UK-EU relationship. Since his by-election victory in June, Mr Burnham has represented the North West constituency of Makerfield, where 65 per cent of voters backed Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Asked whether he was letting them down, he replied: “I said we wouldn’t rerun the referendum and that’s not what I’m doing. The British public, the people of Makerfield, will be the bosses here. They will decide what happens in relation to Brexit.” Elsewhere in his ITV interview, Mr Burnham hinted that John Healey, the Chancellor, would provide fresh energy-bill support in the Budget. Pledging that he would be “relentless” in cutting household energy bills, the Prime Minister said: “What I can say is I’ve already done something to cut people’s energy bills, I’ve taken VAT off electricity bills, one of the first things I announced, actually. “And I’m determined to do more. I said in the Commons last week let’s look at the standing charge on gas bills and see if there’s something we can do there … People will have to wait and see what comes later in the week.” Gas and electricity bill support Standing charges are fixed daily amounts that are added to electricity and gas bills, regardless of how much energy customers use. They average £103.32 a year. Mr Healey has yet to set out the Government’s plan to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence by the end of the decade. The Chancellor resigned as Sir Keir Starmer’s defence secretary in June over his refusal to commit to reaching the spending target by 2030, by which time military chiefs and experts have warned that there could be a Russian attack on a Nato country. Asked whether the “roadmap” to the 3 per cent goal would finally be revealed at the Budget, Mr Burnham said: “He will set out on Wednesday the path to meet our Nato commitments. But we will meet our Nato commitments.” The Prime Minister insisted that his top priority was filling a £5bn gap in the defence investment plan left by Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves, the former chancellor, when it was published earlier this year. Mr Burnham rejected calls for “crude cuts” to Britain’s ballooning welfare budget from Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage. He addressed speculation that he could call a general election as early as next spring. Labour has enjoyed a surge in support since Mr Burnham took office, and now enjoys an average lead of six percentage points over Reform UK , having trailed Mr Farage’s party by 10 points this time last year. However, challenged on whether he was tempted to go to the country early, Mr Burnham said: “There is no election coming any time soon. “Britain, in my view, is starting to regain its momentum, its sense of positivity, its direction. I’m trying to give the country a direction and there is no way I can do that without going back to that relationship with Europe and giving people some options.”