Caroline Dinenage: The government caught asleep at the wheel over long-distance small boat crossing

The small boats crisis took an extraordinary turn this month. MPs from across the Solent area were shocked by the incredible news that the next generation of small boat, a mega dinghy carrying over 100 illegal passengers, had reached Hampshire shores for the first time.    

Organised criminal gangs are behind these desperate attempts to enter Britain illegally. They are becoming bolder and the only way to stop them is to disrupt their operations and to destroy the economic incentives behind their evil business model.

But the Government’s failure to prevent these boat crossings is making the far-right bolder too. We did see unacceptable violence when masked protestors blocked roads in Portsmouth and became aggressive. Over 140 police officers were dragged away from their communities to deal with the disorder. This situation cannot continue.

Clearly the Government was caught asleep at the wheel over this long-distance crossing. I am particularly concerned that despite paying France over £600 million to prevent Channel crossings, their officers decided not to intercept this mega-dinghy. I also remember previous arguments in Parliament over the Conservatives’ Rwanda scheme. This is the same Labour Government that cancelled the Rwanda scheme despite early signs that it worked as a deterrent. Media reports in 2024 suggested migrants were choosing to go to Ireland instead.

The response of the Home Office to this recent arrival was chaotic. MPs like me who wanted to calmly communicate accurate updates about what was going on with our constituents were given no information. In the absence of reliable intel, misinformation and hysteria can easily prevail on social media.

In Parliament I took to the Chamber to challenge the Home Office Minister, Sarah Jones on this unforgivable lack of both intelligence and communication and secured a face to face meeting to discuss this further.

The Home Office has not been in my good books recently. Their treatment of residents living around Haslar Immigration Removal Centre has been shambolic. Even when I organised a public meeting with over 100 local people a fortnight ago, they refused to attend, leaving me with no choice but to visit the Minister, Anna Turley to convey in no uncertain terms the local anger that the Government had chosen to bypass the traditional planning application process, with no opportunity for residents to share their concerns on the size and scale of Phase Two of the site.

Perhaps I was a little too frank - the following week we heard that the planning application for the site will now go to a Public Inquiry. It’s a fairly new and uncharted process but I hope it will give myself and Gosport Borough Council the chance to convey residents’  views. It may not be the silver bullet to stop this redevelopment altogether, but at least additional scrutiny of these misguided plans will now take place.