One Labour minister has been suspiciously quiet since images surfaced showing French authorities firing tear gas at Channel migrants. Could it be that the photos expose a lie? According to Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, “the majority of people in these boats are children, babies and women.” Well, Mr Jones, I suggest you take a closer look at the individuals scrambling towards dinghies in France – I could count the number of women I saw on one hand.
France has stepped up its efforts to deter Channel crossings, deploying tear gas as plumes of smoke filled the air on a beach in Gravelines, north-east of Calais. While these actions are a welcome sign of tougher enforcement, the reality is that a large group of men (yes, Mr Jones, men) still managed to board a boat and are likely halfway across the Channel by now.
Yet without such photos, if we relied solely on the Government’s narrative, we’d be led to believe that the next dinghy arriving on our shores would be filled with vulnerable children and women.
Last week on the BBC Question Time, Mr Jones confidently declared: “When you’re there on the site seeing these dinghies put together by these organised criminal gangs which are clearly not safe, and when you see that the majority of people in these boats are children, babies and women.”
Zia Yusuf of Reform UK interrupted to challenge him, stating: “More than 90% of them are adult men.”
But Mr Jones appeared to double down: “I’m saying it’s not true.” While Mr Yusuf’s 90% figure may be an exaggeration, it’s far closer to the truth than Mr Jones’s claim.
For a minister in a department that deals in facts and figures, I’d urge Mr Jones, if he doesn’t believe the photos, to at least consult his own Government’s data. According to the Home Office, between 2018 and March 2025, there have been 157,803 small boat arrivals. Of those, 115,675 were adult men – that’s 73% of the total.
Just 17,016 were adult women, and 25,112 were under the age of 18.
In typical Labour fashion, Mr Jones later appeared to quietly backtrack on X, writing: “Of course, the overall majority of people arriving illegally on small boats are men.”
It seems the minister is learning on the job. Let’s hope he learns quickly.
