Extra £100m to prevent small boat crossings as asylum protests spread

Ministers will spend an extra £100m on measures to deter Channel crossings, including on the planned "one in, one out" returns agreement with France, the Home Office has said.

- Rajeev Syal

In a third immigration policy pledge within 24 hours, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the money will pay for up to 300 more National Crime Agency (NCA) officers, as well as new technology and equipment to step up intelligence gathering on people-smuggling gangs.

For seven years, successive governments have tried and failed to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats. Figures released last week showed more than 25,000 people have arrived in the UK via small boats in 2025 so far, a record for this point in the year.

Protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers spread this weekend. Nine people were arrested on Saturday in Islington, north London, after brief clashes between protesters and counter-protesters outside the Thistle City Barbican hotel.

Yesterday afternoon, more than a hundred people gathered outside the Britannia International hotel in Canary Wharf following reports that asylum seekers had been bussed in under the cover of darkness. Grainy footage on social media appeared to show men getting off a coach and being escorted into the hotel in the early hours.