No small boat crossings for almost a month... the longest gap in five years

NO CHANNEL crossings were recorded in the past 26 days – the longest gap in five years, according to the latest figures.

There have been no recorded arrivals since December 16, with poor weather conditions potentially contributing to the lack of activity at sea.

The home Office statistics were revealed as Rishi Sunak faced a showdown with warring factions of his own party over the Rwanda policy.

last night, it emerged Suella Braverman had warned the Prime Minister that the scheme might need to remove about 90 per cent of small-boat migrants to achieve a ‘deterrent effect’.

leaked documents seen by the Daily Mail show the former home secretary set out a series of the policy’s shortcomings last July and urged Mr Sunak to take action. The papers appeared to back up claims by Mrs Braverman’s supporters that valuable time was lost as the Government waited for the Supreme Court to rule on the policy.

She wanted to set up an offshore migrant processing centre on a British Overseas Territory such as the Falkland

Islands, St helena or ascension Island, papers show. They describe an island processing centre as Mrs Braverman’s ‘ preference’ – and she told Mr Sunak a pilot scheme involving up to 500 migrants could be operational ‘within six to 12 months’.

Ministers have publicly stated that if removal flights to Rwanda go ahead they would immediately help to reduce small-boat crossings.

But Mrs Braverman’s letter to the Prime Minister, dated July 10 last year, looked at the way australia introduced a similar policy and said: ‘Nobody can say what percentage of arrivals we need to detain and remove to achieve a deterrent effect.

‘It could be 10 per cent, or it could be 90 per cent. Based on australia’s experience I’d suggest it’s closer to the latter than the former.’

Mrs Braverman was also dubious about securing a Rwanda-style deal with another country.

‘The number of countries that present as legally viable and politically willing are severely limited,’ she wrote. ‘after years of searching... I’m doubtful we will find any others.’ even if the home Office did secure a deal with another state, it would lead to renewed legal action, she added.

The letter also gave an insight into Mrs Braverman’s attitude towards the United Nations high Commissioner for Refugees (UNhCR), whose evidence played a key role in the Supreme Court’s decision to rule the Rwanda programme unlawful.

She described the organisation as an ‘activist witness’ which would seek to disrupt the Government’s plan in future court battles.

‘ I’m confident that... activist lawyers backed by activist witnesses like the UNhCR will find alternative creative arguments to stymie our intent,’ she wrote.

an internal home Office memo from July 14, seen by the Mail, showed that the then home secretary wanted

Mr Sunak to ‘ pause’ the previous batch of immigration reforms and beef them up with new measures.

It said the Illegal Migration Bill, which was passed by Parliament a few days later, should have been put on hold and the Government should have dropped its appeal at the Supreme Court.

The home Office would then have added ‘new bells and whistles’ to the legislation, the memo said.

The memo proposed a course of action similar to what was eventually pursued by Mr Sunak after he sacked Mrs Braverman.

Mrs Braverman yesterday described the new Rwanda Bill, which reaches a key stage in the Commons next week, as a ‘betrayal of the British people’.

‘If there are no improvements to it, I will have to vote against it,’ she told GB News.

Rebel Right-wing Tory backbenchers have tabled measures to strengthen the Bill, while moderate Tories have put forward separate changes, arguably weakening it.

a Government source said of Mrs Braverman’s letter to Mr Sunak: ‘This advice predates by some months the verdict of the Supreme Court.

‘Without delay and within days of that verdict, we signed a binding treaty with our Rwandan partners to address the Supreme Court’s concerns and the day after that had a Bill before the house to get flights to Rwanda, which we remain determined to do.’

The number of migrants crossing the Channel has fallen year-on-year for the first time since records began in 2018, with the total in 2023 down by more than a third on 2022. The provisional annual total for last year of 29,437 is 36 per cent lower than the record 45,774 crossings in 2022. But it is still the second highest total on record, above that of 2021 at 28,526.

‘Arrivals down a third on 2022’