Reform UK’s newest MP Sarah Pochin said Labour is sounding “more like Reform than Reform” but that new immigration proposals set out by the Prime Minister were “waffle”. The Government unveiled its White Paper on immigration earlier this week following bruising losses to Reform at local elections earlier this month.

Ms Pochin said: “Reform have got them on the run. They know what the electorate want to hear. They’ve seen the devastating impact of our policies on their results in these latest set of elections, and so now, yes, they’re sounding more like Reform than Reform are.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s immigration policies were “just a bit of bluster, a bit of waffle”, she said.

The Runcorn and Helsby MP said she wanted to see illegal immigrants moved to “secure accommodation” so they can be sent back to their countries.

She said putting them into prisons was “not going to be the the solution”.

“I don’t know what the solution is at this point but we need to put them into a secure location,” she said.

The Prime Minister outlined a number of measures aimed at reducing the number of people coming to the UK on Monday.

The White Paper includes plans to end care worker visas for overseas recruitment, as well as bringing in stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students, and a reduction in the amount of time graduates can spend in the UK after their studies.

Meanwhile there has been a record number of arrivals for the first five months of the year, since data was first collected on Channel crossings in 2018.

It is also the earliest point in the calendar year to have reached 12,000.

The current total for 2025 – 12,407 – is up 31% on the number recorded at this point last year (9,455) and 81% higher than the same point in 2023 (6,844), according to PA news agency analysis of the data.