A COLOSSAL 1,000 illegal migrants surged into Britain on Saturday, hours after Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet reshuffle.
Tough-talking as Home Secretary coincided with the biggest small-boats tally since May.
New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood enters 10 Downing Street
Four illegal migrants are escorted to a special secure van for transportation away from The Port of Dover this afternoon
Migrants wade into the sea to board a dinghy to cross the English Channel in Gravelines, France, last month
The bombardment pushed total Channel arrivals this year past a staggering 30,000.
Today more migrants were spotted arriving in .
Around five were seen being ushered into vans by border patrol, in what appeared to be protocol under the new returns agreement with in action.
Mr Starmer promoted Ms Mahmood last week in a final ditch bid to stop the dinghies and blunt Nigel Farage’s rising appeal.
The socially conservative ex-barrister takes a harder line on and borders than most Labour lefties.
But last night the PM was hit with criticism that Ms Mahmood’s immediate plans fall far short of halting the crossings.
Defence Secretary confirmed the latest effort to stop the boats involves military planners being seconded to the to boost border command in their “preparation for the future”.
And military sites are now under as an alternative to costly hotel housing for illegal arrivals.
Mr Healey told the BBC: “We’re starting to renew, and what Keir Starmer has done is put a new team in place and said to us all, ‘you’ve got to go up a gear to demonstrate that Government can deliver for people’.”
He added: “We are looking at the potential use of military and non-military use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here or need to be processed rapidly.”
Ministers are also understood to be close to securing a migrant returns pact with .
But the Defence Secretary again rebuffed public calls to ditch the ECHR, long blamed for blocking deportations and keeping illegal migrants in Britain.
Pressed on the treaty, Mr Healey said: “We are looking at how we can tighten the interpretation and the application of the European Convention on , particularly in areas like the right to family life and family joining.
“What the PM has said is that we will not pull out entirely of the Convention.
“The reason for that is that it underpins important agreements that keep us safe or keep us, our economy going.”
Ms Mahmood’s team yesterday insisted “nothing is off the table” when it comes to border policy.
A source close to the Home Secretary told The Sun: “The PM has made his position clear on the ECHR.
“But Shabana will be looking very carefully at how we can reform the treaty to stop it being over-interpreted.”
The comments land as a hammer blow to Labour MPs and grandees desperate for the PM to go further on the ECHR.
Backbenchers are under mounting pressure from voters to end the chaos.
Jonathan Hinder, a Labour backbencher elected in 2024, told GB News: “People are coming into this country in a way that is not controlled. And that’s the key thing people want.
“We’ve welcomed over 200,000 Ukrainians to our country in the last few years, so we can’t welcome everybody.
“But this is a really decent, tolerant, welcoming nation. And I think it’s been undermined by this lack of control.
“So we’ve got to get a grip of it very, very quickly.”
Fresh from their party conference, Reform blasted the PM’s new boat plan as “tinkering around the edges”.
Head of Policy Zia Yusuf said: “Labour have allowed tens of thousands of fighting age men to enter the country and that shows no sign of letting up.
“It’s clear Labour are focussed on just tinkering around the edges instead of taking the necessary action required on the ECHR.
“Only Reform will leave outdated treaties and foreign .
“We will detain and deport illegal migrants.”
Mr Yusuf doubled down on Reform’s vow to deport women as well as men arriving by small boat.
He claimed failure to do so has left Britons exposed to “Afghanistan culture”.
Asked why women would be included in removals, Mr Yusuf told Sky News: “Why were the Tories OK with thousands of military-age men from Afghanistan?
“That’s why mothers were protesting in Epping – because it was British women that were subjected to that very culture.
“You just laid out the Afghanistan culture that British people are being subjected to.”
Today Tory Shadow Home Secretary fumed that the PM’s reshuffle “does not change the obvious fact Labour has totally lost control of our borders”.
Mr Philp said: “This has been the worst year in for illegal channel crossings and we clearly have a full-blown borders crisis.
“They might have changed Home Secretary, but the thousands of young men still streaming across the Channel and the fact this year has broken all records for illegal crossing shows this Labour government is too weak to do what is needed.”
Mr Philp added: “Unlike other parties, we are doing the serious work to reform our legal system, meaning that if we have to leave the ECHR we will have a serious plan to deliver it.”
The London Heathrow Hotel is now empty of migrants
Anti-Migrant protesters with British flags near the Hampton by Hilton Hotel 
