Dozens of terror suspects have crossed Channel in small boats, says Jenrick

Dozens of terror suspects have crossed Channel in small boats, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, has said.

The Tory leadership candidate said individuals linked to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda were among those who had arrived claiming to be refugees.

His remarks represent the first time that such information has been publicly disclosed and come after Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda plan, which would have seen small boat arrivals sent to the African nation.

Mr Jenrick also said at least 1,000 people who arrived on small boats up until the end of 2022, when he became immigration minister, were “connected to criminality of all kinds”.

In an article for The Telegraph, he warned that axing the Rwanda deportation scheme had left Britain more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in future.

He wrote: “In the year before I was immigration minister, more than a dozen known terror suspects crossed the Channel on small boats. By now, that figure is well into the dozens.

“These are people our security services identified as known quantities, threats to our communities, with links to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. And they waltzed right in.”

Government sources dismissed his claims and described the Rwanda plan – under which no migrants were forcibly deported – as a “hopeless gimmick”.

Mr Jenrick had access to sensitive security information when he was a senior minister in the Home Office. He said his time in charge of immigration policy had made him realise that the state was not doing “everything we can to protect our people”.

Alongside the dozens of terror suspects, he claimed that almost 1,000 migrants who arrived in small boats in 2022 and 2023 have been linked to criminality.

“They all go on to watchlists of varying levels,” he wrote. “But how can we expect our police officers and security services, already dealing with threats from home, to take on dozens or hundreds more cases?

“It’s an impossible task. And while they do a fantastic job, it’s inevitable some will slip through the net.”

Mr Jenrick served as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet between October 2022 and December last year, when he resigned after concluding that legislation tabled by the then prime minister to rescue the Rwanda plan from legal challenges did not “go far enough”.

He has now emerged as a front-runner to be elected as the next Conservative leader after topping the first two ballots of MPs.

Mr Jenrick said his time in the Home Office had exposed him to the “dark truth” that illegal migration was putting Britain’s security at risk.

“I saw the British state powerless as people it knew to be terrorists broke into the country, and then fail to remove them because of our current legal regime,” he wrote. “Upon grappling with these cases, it was obvious to me it would be unconscionable to not do absolutely everything we could to stop illegal migrants breaking into our country.

“Arguments that the views of activist foreign judges and liberal elites were more important than fixing this problem made my blood boil.”

The former immigration minister has said Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights, blaming it for thwarting deportations. Shortly after entering No 10, Sir Keir Starmer promised that the UK would “never” quit the agreement or its Strasbourg-based court while he is in power.

One of his first acts as Prime Minister was the scrapping of the Rwanda plan. Mr Jenrick attacked that decision as the “height of irresponsibility” and claimed it would “endanger lives”, writing: “It was a cheap political scoring point, unevidenced, and designed to give succour to his friends on the Left.

“I won’t sugar-coat the consequences of this. And I won’t apologise for putting it starkly. It means our country is not just more likely to suffer from out-of-control illegal migration for longer, but that we are more likely to be the victim of extremist or even terrorist attacks.

“The security services know it, the key border force officials know it, and anyone who has seen inside of the system knows it.”

A Government source dismissed Mr Jenrick’s criticism.

The source said: “The Tories spent two years and £700 million and managed to send four volunteers to Rwanda. The idea that it was a deterrent is laughable.

“Since taking office, a Labour Government has boosted our border security and seen crossings go down this summer by 20 per cent. It’s time for Jenrick and his friends to stop hiding behind hopeless gimmicks and start admitting his Party’s failure has undermined our border security.”

The Home Office was contacted for comment.