Shabana Mahmood accused of having 'no control' of Britain's borders after double undetected small boat crossing

Chris Philp has accused Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of having "no control of our borders" following the undetected arrival of two small boats carrying illegal migrants this week.

Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Home Secretary described the past week as "shocking," pointing to more than 1,000 people entering the country illegally across just three days - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

He argued that the only effective solution was to follow Australia's example from roughly 13 years ago by withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights and swiftly removing all irregular arrivals.

Mr Philp said: "Leave the ECHR and deport all of these illegal immigrants within a week of arrival, and then the crossings will pretty quickly stop."

As well as the two vessels that reached British shores without detection, Mr Philp highlighted a crossing from Normandy heading towards the Isle of Wight, which he described as the "longest Channel crossing ever recorded".

He warned: "There may be others. I understand that as we speak, there are two or three additional boats crossing the English Channel right now."

Mr Philp accused Ms Mahmood of having "no control of the border" following this week's crossings.

He told GB News: "Shabana Mahmood has got no control of the border whatsoever.

"The French Interior Minister Monsieur Nuñez admitted a couple of days ago that the French gendarmes that we pay for have orders to stand around doing nothing and not intervening."

The Shadow Home Secretary said he had personally observed this inaction during a visit to the French coastline only weeks ago.

He said: "I personally witnessed that just a few weeks ago on the beaches. They're doing nothing to stop these boats."

Turning to economic matters, Mr Philp launched a broadside against Labour's £25billion National Insurance increase on employers, which he said was "crippling" businesses while the proceeds were being funnelled into welfare spending.

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He pointed to the collapse of Coughlans Bakery in his Croydon South constituency as a direct casualty of the policy.

The chain, which had traded for close to a century, recently went bankrupt with the loss of 170 jobs.

He said: "The guy that runs it, Sean, directly said that was as a result of Labour's National Insurance and business rate increases."

He branded the Government's approach "a catastrophe" that was driving successful individuals abroad, though he stopped short of committing to specific Conservative tax pledges.

He concluded: "I'm not going to announce new tax policy on your programme, as much as I would love to. You'll have to wait and see in the future to hear about those issues.

"But you are right to say that the national insurance increase on employers is crippling – a £25billion increase in National Insurance, which Labour are then basically spending on welfare increases, which is ridiculous. It's making businesses go bust."

A Home Office spokesman told GB News: "Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable, with crossings down by 42 per cent and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.

"But this week's events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade."