“ONE IN THE EYE FOR ANDY”, ran the headline on the front page of the sinking Sun on Thursday, as the tabloid attempted to draw a tortured analogy between the Bayeux Tapestry and its fury over small boats.
Claiming “a stitch-up by the French” over the arrivals, chief political correspondent Martina Bet reported that president Macron was offering “just 45 extra cops for the small-boats crisis” and complained that a detention centre for asylum seekers in Dunkirk, funded by the UK, was still not up and running.
The paper approvingly quoted rentagob shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who complained: “It’s shocking that it’s not operational. Forget the Bayeux Tapestry, this is a stitch-up.” He claimed he recently witnessed ten armed French police officers “standing around doing nothing” as around 100 migrants boarded a boat.
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Oddly, though, the Sun found no space in its story to report the fact that, following increased co-operation between the UK and France to disrupt people smugglers’ supply chains for boats, outboard motors and lifebelts, this summer has seen the lowest level of small-boat crossings since 2019.
The numbers of people arriving in small boats are sharply down. This summer, migrant arrivals fell to their lowest since 2020, with 6,949 people crossing the Channel in the three months of June, July and August. The number of boats reaching Britain was the lowest since 2019.
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A total of 16,391 migrants have crossed from France to the UK so far this year, down 43% compared with the same time last year, and an 18% drop from the same point in 2024. This follows a £662m deal with France to put more officers on beaches and adopt new interception tactics.
August crossings (up to Aug 30) fell to their lowest level since records began in 2018, down 46% on last year. In July there were the fewest crossings for the month since 2019, down 64% on 2025. As for June, compared with 2025, crossings for the month have halved.
Oddly, though, the Sun, while finding room for Chris Philp’s pathetic pun, had no space to publish any of these statistics, any one of which would have made its front page look rather silly.
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