Labour was last night accused of ‘shamefully failing’ to tackle illegal immigration after more than 600 people crossed the Channel by small boat in just one day.

Home Office figures published yesterday showed 609 migrants reached Britain in near-freezing conditions on Thursday.

This is the highest number recorded in a single day in December since data started being gathered in 2018. It is also the highest daily total since October 18, when 647 migrants arrived.

It brought the total since Labour came to power to just over 21,000, while the running tally since the start of the year now stands at nearly 35,000.

This is up 19 per cent on this time last year (29,090) but down 23 per cent on 2022 (44,821) which was a record year for crossings.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This is a day of shame for Labour. The huge number of illegal crossings shows Labour is failing to tackle small boats.

Home Office figures published yesterday showed 609 migrants reached Britain in near-freezing conditions on Thursday

Since Labour came to power, just over 21,000 migrants have entered Britain, while the running tally since the start of the year now stands at nearly 35,000

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp labelled it a ‘day of shame’ for Labour

‘They cancelled the Rwanda deterrent before it even started. If they had allowed those Rwanda flights to start as planned in July, illegal immigrants would not bother attempting to cross.

‘Labour is shamefully failing us on illegal immigration and leaving our borders undefended.

‘Since the election, crossings are up 18 per cent compared to the same time last year.’

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘This is the chaos that this Government inherited.

‘We put in place a serious, credible plan to bring order to the asylum system by smashing the smuggling gangs through our new Border Security Command, tackling the problem upstream with greater national collaboration and ramping up returns of those with no right to be here.’

These figures come after Germany pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people smugglers enabling Channel crossings to Britain, as part of a new deal signed between the two countries on tackling immigration crime.