Row over Labour minister’s small boat comments
By: | Published: 2025-06-13 17:39:00 | Source: www.bbc.com
A row has erupted after a senior minister said the majority of people crossing the English Channel in small boats he had seen were “children, babies and women”.
Treasury minister Darren Jones and Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf clashed on the BBC’s Question Time over the age and sex of people making the journey.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on Jones to apologise for saying something that was not true.
But the minister later said he had been referring to what he had seen on a recent visit to Border Security Command in Dover.
He added: “Of course the overall majority of people arriving illegally on small boats are men – but not ‘north of 90%’ as Reform claimed.”
In the first three months of 2025, there were 6,420 small boat arrivals where the age and sex of the person was recorded,…
