Britain has most migrants in Europe as one in 100 are illegal, study finds

Britain's figures compare to the 300,000 illegal migrants in France and 700,000 in Germany, which has the second-largest population of illegal migrants.

It comes after 973 migrants in 17 small boats crossed the English Channel on Saturday - the highest number to arrive on a single day in 2024.

A total of 26,612 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, which is up five per cent on 2023 at the same stage.

However, the total is behind the record of 33,611 at this point in 2022.

Sir Keir Starmer has been slammed by senior Tories after the Labour party scrapped the Rwanda scheme.

The Government is facing calls to crack down on people-smuggling gangs responsible for the crisis.

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James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, said: "We need to deter people from coming here illegally and to root them out of our economy when they are here."

Labour has pledged to tackle the people-smuggling gangs by setting up a Border Security Command.

"Far from softening the response, this new Government has increased returns of those living here illegally and set up a new Border Security Command to relentlessly pursue the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings, undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. We are getting a grip after the chaos of the last Government’s approach," a Home Office source told The Telegraph.

"The Tory leadership candidates are clinging on to the Rwanda partnership, which spent £700m to send four volunteers. Perhaps it’s time for them to learn from their mistakes, rather than simply doubling down."

The research estimated the number of illegal migrants in the UK was between 594,000 and 745,000.

Denis Kierans, senior researcher at Oxford’s Compas migration centre, said it was vital for policymakers to know the scale because "these are people who are living and working in the UK, but who are operating outside the mainstream tax and benefits system".

"What that means is the state is missing out on their contributions to the public purse while they end up at the fringes of society, at risk of exploitation and destitution".