Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged that the Home Office will review GB News presenter Patrick Christys' investigation into migrant smuggling gangs, promising a "crackdown" on illegal Channel crossings.

Speaking on GB News, host Bev Turner asked: "I don't know whether you were watching GB News last night, Chancellor, but Patrick Christys has done a brilliant job of tracking down migrant smuggling gangs.

"Can you guarantee that you will work with the evidence that GB News has acquired to smash the gangs? Because, frankly, we are making it look quite easy at this end."

Reeves responded: "I will make sure the Home Office watches that, because we do need to crack down on those gangs. That's why yesterday we announced £250 million for the Border Security Command to do just that. We can't carry on as we have over the last few years.

Rachel Reeves promised that the Home Office will watch the show

"We need to stop people crossing the Channel, and we need to deport people who are here illegally.

"That's why we will end the use of asylum hotels during this Parliament. It's right to get people out of those hotels, and if they have no right to be here, they should be on a plane back home. It's not right that British taxpayers are picking up the bill for those hotel stays."

Patrick Christys' investigation involved infiltrating smuggling gangs through TikTok, where he posed as a Vietnamese migrant seeking passage to Britain.

The smugglers provided their personal phone numbers and communicated via WhatsApp, confirming their operations from France.

He described the process as "easy", noting they had obtained "all the incriminating evidence you would need for a prosecution" including voice recordings and exact locations of smuggling operations.

Last night, Patrick said: "I am convinced that if we had five people in this office working on it full time, GB News would smash more gangs than the Labour Government."

During her Spending Review announcement, Reeves committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the next election, a measure she said would save taxpayers £1 billion annually.

The Chancellor emphasised deportation as a key priority, stating: "We need to stop people crossing the Channel, and we need to deport people who are here illegally.

"That's why we will end the use of asylum hotels during this Parliament. It's right to get people out of those hotels, and if they have no right to be here, they should be on a plane back home."

She told MPs the changes would include funding to cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeals and return those with no right to stay in the UK.

Patrick said that infiltrating the gang was easy

Earlier in the interview, Reeves discussed the cost of living crisis in the UK and said: "I recognise that things are still tough for many people, but in the first ten months of this Labour government, wages have increased by more than they did in the first ten years of the previous Conservative government. That's real wages, after inflation.

"But I recognise that we need to do more to make working people better off.

"That's why, for example, yesterday we expanded the Warm Homes Plan to insulate more homes and cut fuel bills every year.

"It's why we are providing free school meals for children whose parents are on Universal Credit. It's why we’re supporting childcare, so more parents can go out to work.

"Crucially, it's why it was so important to return stability to the economy, which has enabled the Bank of England to cut interest rates four times in the last year. For families with a mortgage or paying rent, that's good news."