BRITAIN’s small boat crisis has smashed records with nearly 20,000 migrants crossing the Channel in just six months — the highest total ever for the first half of the year.

Official figures show 19,982 people have made the dangerous journey in 2025 as crossings spiral weeks ahead of last year’s pace.

Downing Street has urged voters to be patient, insisting “it’s not simple” to smash the criminal gangs driving the surge and warning “it’s going to take time.”

The crisis is now 48 per cent worse than this time last year and 75 per cent higher than in 2023.

Another 879 migrants arrived on Monday alone, the third biggest daily total so far this year, with smugglers exploiting the heatwave.

More boats were seen leaving French beaches this morning, with officials expecting the total to smash through the 20,000 mark.

Monday saw 13 boats carrying an average of 68 people each, as organised crime gangs continue to cash in.

The worst day so far this year saw 1,195 arrivals, while the all-time daily record remains 1,305, set in September 2022.

The Tories blasted Labour for tearing up their Rwanda deportation plan and replacing it with “fantasy”.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “One year into Labour’s government and the boats haven’t stopped – they’ve multiplied. This is the worst year on record, and it’s become a free-for-all.

“We need a removals deterrent so every single illegal immigrant who arrives is removed to a location outside Europe.  The crossings will then rapidly stop.”

Asked about the record numbers, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said the figures were “clearly unacceptable”.

He said: “More people are being crammed into unseaworthy vessels, as we are restricting supply to equipment, and gangs putting even more lives at risk. But let’s be clear, the rising numbers in recent years are because these gangs have been allowed to embed industrial scale smuggling enterprises across Europe, whilst our own asylum system collapsed through failed policies like Rwanda. But we are taking action.”

The spokesman pointed to arrests of gang leaders and better cooperation with France, saying this was down to “the Prime Minister’s efforts to reset our relationship across Europe”.

But he admitted: “Fixing a broken immigration system and taking on a global challenge like this won’t happen overnight. It will take time for our new policies and approach to turn the tide on years of ineffective measures.

“We’re not going to put an arbitrary timeframe on it. We are clear it’s going to take time. It’s not simple to dismantle an embedded criminal structure that crosses borders. It requires international partnerships and international solutions.”