What was claimed
Small boat crossing numbers in August were lower than any August previously.
Our verdict
False. The 3,567 people who arrived via small boat in August 2025 was only the lowest for that month since 2021, when 3,053 people were recorded. The 56 boats that arrived last month was the lowest number since 2019.
The number of small boat crossings last month was not “lower than any August previously”, despite what was claimed by the home secretary Yvette Cooper on Tuesday morning.
When challenged over “record numbers of people” coming to the UK via small boat crossings on BBC Breakfast [1:39:40], Ms Cooper said “the numbers for August were better, they were lower than any August previously”.
She also told Sky News: “The number of people crossing in August was lower than in previous Augusts”.
That’s not correct for either the number of people crossing in small boats or the number of boats making crossings.
The number of people making crossings was the lowest August total since 2021, while the number of boats was the lowest for that month since 2019.
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The government started recording data on small boat crossings in 2018. This data shows that 3,567 people arrived via small boat crossing in August 2025—the lowest August total since 2021, when there were 3,053 arrivals.
Lower totals for August were also recorded in 2018, 2019 and 2020, although it’s worth noting that the number of people making these crossings was in general far lower in these years than in the years since.
The overall number of people arriving via small boat crossing in the first eight months of this year remains the highest for this period since records began in 2018.
The Home Office appears to have briefed that the number of boats crossing the Channel in August was the lowest for the month since 2019. A similar claim was also made in Parliament by Alex Ballinger MP, who said there had been “the smallest number of crossings in August since 2019”.
Government data shows that 56 boats made crossings in August 2025—this is the lowest number since August 2019 when 34 boats arrived, but it’s not the lowest number of “any August”.
It’s worth noting that the average number of people travelling per small boat, at 63.7, was higher in August 2025 than in the same month of previous years.
The average number of people per boat has steadily increased since data on small boat arrivals began being recorded in 2018.
If a minister makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.
We’ve contacted Ms Cooper for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
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