The past week saw the Channel migrant crisis reach a grim new milestone - with more than 50,000 crossing by small boat since Labour's general election victory in July last year.

The alarming figure was passed on Monday, when 474 migrants made the illegal crossing in a single day.

Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” that facilitate these perilous crossings has now become a focal point of criticism.

While his government has launched the Border Security Command, aimed at coordinating efforts among Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, the National Crime Agency, MI5, and others, the impact has yet to be felt, and patience is fast running out.

Comparisons with some mainland European nations have only served to sharpen the contrast.

Countries like Portugal and Germany have swiftly detained and begun deportation processes shortly after illegal arrivals. Last week, the UK's new partial returns deal with France came into operation.

Mark White's Migration Watch: A mega dinghy and 50,000 arrivals - another disastrous week in the small boats crisis |

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The government believes the scheme will act as a deterrent, even though the number of illegal migrants being sent back across the Channel will be very modest to begin with.

But already, since that treaty became operational, more than 2,500 migrants have reached the UK by small boat - a defiant message from the people smugglers, that for them, their day-to-day business continues unhindered.

A chilling new record was set this week, as an inflatable dinghy carrying 106 migrants, the highest number ever recorded on a small boat in UK waters, was intercepted crossing the Channel.

The ten‑metre long 'mega dinghy' stayed afloat despite being grossly overloaded for an incredible 15 hours at sea.

For maritime authorities, the incident is deeply alarming and could signal that smuggling networks may be scaling up capacity, even potentially importing boats of larger design and origin.

Protests against migrant hotels made headlines across the UK again this week, from Epping to London, Norwich, Leeds, Southampton, and beyond.

But it was Waterlooville in Hampshire that provided a blueprint for what many of the protesters want to see in their communities.

After weeks of peaceful pushback from many within the Waterlooville community, the Home Office scrapped plans to house 35 migrants in a block of flats in the town centre.

It was a victory for the townspeople and their local MP, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

It's not the first time a well-organised local campaign has led authorities to climb down. Protests against the use of the former Dambusters airbase at Scampton in Lincolnshire and another former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire led the Conservative government to cancel those plans.

But this is the first reversal under Labour, and will give heart and new energy to those protesting elsewhere around the country that their people power could yield similar results.