Stopping the boats won't happen overnight, says UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak admits problem will take some time to address, despite tough new legislation

A group of people thought to be migrants arrive on the beach in Dungeness, Kent, after being rescued by the RNLI Life Boat following a small boat incident in the Channel. AP

Rishi Sunak has admitted his pledge to stop small boats crossing the Channel “won't happen overnight” and will likely not be achieved by the next election.

Speaking in an interview with ConservativeHome on Thursday, the Prime Minister said there is no “single, simple solution” to fix the problem.

“I've also said it won't happen overnight,” he said. “I've been very clear about that.

“People should know it's very important to me, it's hugely important to the country that we need to fix the system, as a matter of fairness, more than anything else.

“It's not fair that people are breaking the rules and coming here illegally, when many people don’t. They do follow the rules and emigrate here legally.

“It’s not fair on taxpayers who as we know spend millions of pounds a day housing asylum seekers in hotels and all the pressure that’s putting on local communities.

“It’s also not fair on those who actually do need our help.”

Migrants at immigration processing centre in Manston — in pictures

He said the UK is a “welcoming and compassionate” country but that resources need to be targeted at the people who need them most.

Mr Sunak said he expected a legal battle over the “novel, untested” and “ambitious” Illegal Migration Bill, which is currently going through parliament.

The legislation is aimed at changing the law to make it clear that people arriving in the UK illegally will not be able to remain in the country.

Instead, they will either be sent back to their home country or to a nation like Rwanda, with which the UK has a deal, although so far legal challenges have meant no flights carrying migrants have taken off for Kigali.

He said “there may well be” an interim judgment from the European Court of Human Rights against the policy, as happened with the Rwanda scheme.

“That's always likely to happen in these cases and we will robustly challenge those, as we are doing with the Rwandan cases that are currently working their way through the court system,” he said.

“You have to expect legal challenge on these things, our job is to robustly defend them and that's what we'll do.”

His comments come after it was revealed last week that more than 4,500 people have been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats this year despite a promise to crack down on the problem.

The total number of crossings last year was 45,755.