DUP MP Sammy Wilson says Tories and Labour have both failed to stem small boat 'invasion'
Sammy Wilson has said that both Labour and the Tories must share the blame for the "invasion" of the UK by small boats during 2024.
The DUP MP said he does not have a problem with legal migration, nor with authentic asylum seekers, but with those who "use a criminal route to get into the country", effectively jumping ahead of those who use regular routes.
He was speaking after the full-year figures for known small boat arrivals in the UK were published.
The number for the full 12 months of 2024 was up by a quarter on the previous year, with some 36,816 people making the journey.
The authorities first started recording crossings in 2018. Back then the total was comparatively low (299).
It rose in 2019 (1,843) and 2020 (8,466), then surged in 2021 (28,526) and 2022 (45,774), before dipping in 2023 (29,437), then rising again in 2024.
The fact the UK's ruling party changed mid-year means that blame is shared, said Mr Wilson.
"The fact it's over the year [2024] shows that there was a failure by both the Conservatives and Labour to deal with what is to me an increasingly pressing issue," he said.
"No one party can really escape judgment on this.
"They've both overseen a period when we've had what is quite literally an invasion of our country by people who are not prepared to go through the usual legal channels, who jump over the people who are queued trying to get legal migration into the UK.
"And at the same time they finance a massive criminal organisation which is now deeply rooted not only in our society but a deeply-rooted supply chain or production chain right across the world."
Some of the arrivals will have been "allocated" to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, he said, so "we have not escaped the impact of this".
Mr Wilson went on to add: "I've no difficulty with legal immigration. If people want to come here to work, have jobs when they come here to work, I think we should welcome [them] to our shores.
"But those who come illegally then I think there are issues."
He said that the illegal arrivals to the UK over the past year are equivalent to bringing in a town the size of Larne (in fact though, with a population of about 19,000, Larne is far smaller).
"And that's the ones we know about," he added.
"You can't ignore the resource implications that has.
"The UK is fortunate that we are much richer and much more peaceful than other parts of the world, and if people are genuinely under persection and wish to come here there are legal routes they can use, they can prove their case that they are in danger, and we should then give consideration to giving them asylum.
"So I've no difficulty with asylum seekers either, because I think as a rich nation we should make a contribution to helping people who are in distress like that."
But he does take issue with those who have "chosen to use a criminal route to get into the country" and have not shown proof they are in need of asylum.
The overwhelming bulk of immigration to the UK comes via regular routes, not small boats, and has spiked in recent years.
For example, the most recent confirmed data shows net migration to the UK was roughly 906,000 for the year to June 2023.
Provisional figures for the year to June 2024 suggest the figure is over 720,000.