Over 4,000 migrants thought to have crossed the Channel

More than 4,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK so far this year after the busiest day for Channel crossings since the start of 2024.

Home Office figures indicate 514 people made the journey in ten boats on Wednesday - the highest daily total of the year to date suggesting an average of 51 people per boat.

It takes the running total for Channel crossings in 2024 to 4,043 - 10 per cent higher than this time last year (3,683).

The government department has stressed that the latest data is provisional, suggesting the numbers could later be revised.

It comes as the Government was dealt another setback in its plan to send migrants to Rwanda with another series of defeats to draft laws in the Lords, piling fresh pressure on ministers in their bid to get flights off the ground.

Meanwhile, a migrant was taken to hospital when he arrived in Dover, Kent, after crossing the Channel, having told police he was stabbed on a French beach before making the journey.

In the wake of the Government's defeat in the Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury said there was “no evidence” to support claims the Church of England was “subverting the asylum system” by allowing spurious conversions to Christianity.

The Church has been accused in recent months of allowing "industrialscale" baptisms of migrants to assist with their asylum claims, allowing them to suggest they would be persecuted in their home country because they were now Christians.

But speaking on Times Radio on Thursday, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said he had seen “no evidence” of this occurring, only "assertions".