Nigel Farage has accused the Home Office of wanting to "bury" illegal immigration by swapping the word "illegal" for "irregular."
In a post on social media, the Home Office said it was "taking control of irregular migration."
It comes as Home Office figures showed nearly 1,500 migrants had arrived in the UK on small boats across the Channel in one week.
Some 1,499 people made the journey in 27 boats from July 15 to 21, while the French coastguard confirmed two people died amid rescue operations off the northern French coast.
Nigel Farage has responded to the Home Office's claim
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The Reform UK leader took to social media to accuse the Home Office of wanting to "bury" the topic.
Farage said: "Labour wants to bury illegal immigration as a subject and they are now using the word ‘irregular’. We will not let them get away with it."
Former Conservative Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick responded to the Home Office post saying: "You misspelt illegal."
A spokesperson for the Home Secretary told GB News: "The Home Office has always used the term 'irregular migration.' For example in the irregular migration statistics that are released by the Department."
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GettyLast week, Reform UK chairman and Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice told the Commons: “When you take a drug dealer off the street corner, guess what, another one appears because of the vile drugs trade and the amount of money involved.
“My constituents of Boston and Skegness believe it’s exactly the same with trying your policy, Home Secretary, of smashing the gangs. If you smash one gang, it’s like a game of whack-a-mole, another one’ll appear, and another one will appear, because there is so much money involved.
“Here’s the point, how long will you give your policy, Home Secretary, before realising the only policy (that) will work is the policy that you actually started last week, which is to pick up and take back to France, which we’re entitled to do under international maritime law?”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper responded: “No one should be making these dangerous journeys and the criminal gangs are making massive profits from organising these boats. I just don’t think they should be able to get away with it.”
It comes as Shadow Home Secretary and Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly has warned that the small boats crisis is going to get much worse now that Labour have scrapped the Rwanda deterrent.
Writing in The Express, the MP for Braintree said: "People now know if they come across in a small boat they will be welcomed with open arms. Why would you want to encourage people to risk their lives leaving a safe and prosperous European nation? It makes no sense.
"Labour has started the long march back to the European Union too, with a migration deal the first thing on the table."
