However, Burnham said the numbers, in total, had come down.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the Labour conference on Sunday, he said: “You have to look at the overall trend – crossings were down by a half across the summer and down 50% on a few years ago, so that’s major progress on where we were.”
So far, 2026 has seen 18,565 people make the Channel crossing, compared to 32,188 during the same period in 2025.
“What it also shows is that the gangs have been disrupted and, as a result, are changing tactics – like using different routes and different vessels – but we’ll be relentless in chasing them down,” added Burnham.
Describing as unhelpful the UK’s “loss of collaboration” with its European neighbours “thanks to Brexit”, he said his goal “is to see no crossings at all”, but added that he would not give a date as to when that might happen.
“I’m not going to give you a date by which we can do that, or a promise we’ll do it, as other governments have done in terms of a particular deadline,” Burnham said.