Fact check: Small boat arrivals in August

This roundup of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s largest fact checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.

The number of small boat crossings last month was not “lower than any August previously”, despite what was claimed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper earlier this week.

When challenged in a TV interview on Tuesday over “record numbers of people” coming to the UK via small boat crossings, Ms Cooper – who at the time was home secretary – said “the numbers for August were better, they were lower than any August previously”.

That is 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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How many people arrived in August?

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 is 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.

What about the number of boats?

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”.

This is correct. Government data shows that 56 boats made crossings in August 2025, which is the lowest number since August 2019 when 34 boats arrived – but not the lowest number of “any August previously” as Ms Cooper claimed.

More people are arriving per boat

Full Fact analysis of Home Office figures shows the average number of people travelling per small boat was 63.7 in August 2025, which is higher than in any previous August since records started in 2018.

The average number of people per boat has steadily increased since data on small boat arrivals began being recorded in 2018.

We contacted Ms Cooper’s office for comment but did not receive a response.