The UK’s former chief immigration officer has said he believes the number of migrants crossing the Channel illegally will go up over the next few weeks.

Kevin Saunders said migrants were pleased at Keir Starmer’s victory as they feel he will make it much easier for them to settle in the UK.

Speaking to GB News, Kevin Saunders said:

“If you go back to Tuesday, 419 [migrants] got across and the French managed to intercept another 126. Over 500 tried to do it and the French were able to stop three of the boats coming across. So a little bit of a result, but not a very big one, because 400 plus got over.

“The numbers are going to go up, yes and with the weather due to get better this week, we will see an awful lot more coming across the channel.

“Migrants are there. They’re waiting to come across and it doesn’t look as though the French were doing too much at all to try and stop that boat.

“It is a ruthless, absolutely ruthless organisation that’s going on there. It’s basically the survival of the fittest, so women and children aren’t going to have much chance getting on there.

“Perhaps in some way, that’s not a bad thing; at least they’ll be safe in France, rather than coming across the channel. And coming across from Gravelines is a very, very dangerous crossing. You can see how strong the currents actually are so that’s a really dangerous crossing.

“The migrants are very pleased, particularly the Kurds, that I think they’re calling [Keir Starmer] ‘the friendly one’, because they believe that it’s going to be much, much easier now for them to come across and settle in the UK.

“It’s going to be awful the next few weeks. If the weather stays fine, you’re going to see a lot of people come across.

“It’s so ruthless, what is going on in the channel. These young men virtually elbowing other people out of the way to get on the boats.

“There are going to be a lot more deaths. That boat is massively overloaded, and you can see that the sea is not a particularly calm sea.

“And if that boat went down with the odd people on it, there would be a number of deaths.”