Just 15 percent of Brits believe Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will effectively tackle the ongoing migration crisis at England’s southern shoreline, damning new polling has revealed.
The PeoplePolling survey, commissioned by British broadcaster GB News, showed the dire lack of faith the electorate has in Sunak’s administration to get a grip on the record levels of illegal immigration the country has experienced in recent times.
A record 45,756 people made the journey to Britain via small boats across the English Channel last year, according to official government figures released on New Year’s Day. That figure is up 60 percent over 2021 figures, which were already a record.
In the most recent polling, just 4 percent of respondents were either “completely confident” or “fairly confident” in Sunak’s ability to solve the migrant crisis this year, while 57 percent were “not confident at all” in the government finding a solution to the problem.
There has been a constant wave of migration across the Channel in recent years, where almost all arrivals, irrespective of their nationality or origin, immediately claim asylum. This provides them with certain protections and places an obligation on the British government to support them during their claim.
Britain’s asylum process has become logjammed due to the influx of applicants, and with a shortage of temporary accommodation in place for new arrivals, the Home Office has been spending just shy of £7 million a day on block-booking hotels across the country, much to the dismay of local residents and anti-mass migration campaigners who consider the policy to be both socially dangerous and profligate.
While the 72 percent of Labour voters who have little faith in the incumbent Conservative government to handle the crisis is unexpected, even a majority (52 percent) of Conservative voters are pessimistic about the government’s ability to turn the tide, causing a major headache for the British prime minister.
“Most voters have no confidence in the Government on this issue, which we should remember is the third top issue for all voters and the second top issue for Conservatives,” professor and pollster Matthew Goodwin told The Telegraph newspaper.
“Unless Rishi Sunak can change these numbers, it really will be game over at the next general election. Make no mistake – it’s now make or break on immigration,” he added.
Sunak cited a crackdown on illegal immigration as one of his five priorities to fix Britain in his first major speech of 2023 on Wednesday.
He vowed to halve inflation in 2023, grow the economy, reduce the national debt, cut NHS waiting lists, and stop the migration boats — all pledges he claimed are the “people’s priorities” and therefore “my immediate priorities too.”
Sunak assured the public that his administration would swiftly “pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed.”
