“The strongest concerns are about small boat crossings."
Yvette Cooper has called for a new digital ID system to manage the UK’s borders, after almost 1,200 migrants crossed the Channel illegally on May 31, the highest number in a single day this year.
The Home Secretary told MPs the Government was working on a digital service linked to e-visas and border checks to determine who is in the country legally.
Cooper said: “We want to have a digital service linked to e-visas and linked to our border management process to be able to determine whether an individual is in or out of the UK, whether they have left at the point at which their visa expires or whether they are overstaying and immigration enforcement action is needed.
“We also want to ensure e-visas can effectively be used as a way of having that digital ID around the ability to work, to be here lawfully.”
The comments came as Defence Secretary John Healey admitted the UK had “lost control of its borders” following the weekend’s spike in crossings.
Cooper said immigration enforcement efforts had already stepped up, noting that illegal working raids had risen by 40% since Labour came to power. Arrests for illegal working have also increased by the same margin.
She said the Government was committed to restoring order, acknowledging public concern over small boats.
Cooper said: “The strongest concerns are about small boat crossings.
“But we need to ensure there is order and control across the board.”
So far in 2025, 14,812 people have made the Channel crossing, a 42% rise compared with the same period in 2024.
Officials have blamed favourable weather, reporting an “unusually high” number of “red days” – periods when calm seas lead to spikes in activity.
Cooper said the surge was also being driven by organised criminal gangs.
She stated: “An entire criminal industry has taken hold along our borders.
“Nobody should be making these dangerous boat crossings – they do undermine border security, they put lives at risk, it was completely unacceptable the numbers that we saw on Saturday but also the continuing nature of the problem.”
The Home Secretary said Labour wanted to work with France on legal reforms and was hoping for the swift reinstatement of a scheme to return migrants to the first safe EU country they arrived in.
She said: “The Government would like to see a replacement of the Dublin scheme and was keen for France to implement that law change as rapidly as possible.”
During her appearance at the Home Affairs Committee, Cooper also took aim at the previous Government’s asylum policies.
She said: “I am concerned about the level of money that has gone into these contracts and the scale of the backlog we have inherited.
“We need to end asylum hotels altogether.”
Cooper confirmed the Government had imposed tighter contract conditions and had already cancelled the agreement with Stay Belvedere Hotels.
She also criticised what she called a “free market experiment” that contributed to higher immigration under the Conservatives.
“I think this really was a sort of free market experiment in which effectively employers were encouraged to recruit from abroad including being given a 20% discount on the wages they were able to pay for people who they recruited from abroad.”
She added that while the UK needed “global talent”, the Government opposed care sector recruitment from overseas and international students bringing dependents.
“We need to have global talent and we need to make sure we have the right approach for those high-potential individuals.
“But we should not have the care work being recruited from abroad.”
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