Rishi Sunak – live: PM insists small boats policy going ‘better than expected’ days after new crossing record

Friday saw record numbers of crossings for this year - with 686 arriving on UK shores

Rishi Sunak welcomes Joe Biden to Downing Street

Rishi Sunak has insisted his crackdown on small boats is going “much better” than expected, despite record numbers of boat crossings.

Speaking to reporters on his way to the Nato summit in Lithuania, the prime minister denied he was wrong to claim his small boats policy was working last month.

It comes after Friday saw record numbers of crossings for this year - with 686 arriving on UK shores.

The prime minister said he had always predicted that the numbers coming to Britain would rise during the summer.

He said his policy had to be judged on the trends when he took office.

“The fact that they (numbers) are down for five months of the year, the fact that they are still down, even if it’s less, than what people are expecting is a much better result than anyone was expecting,” he said.

He added: “We need to get people out of hotels, we need to save the taxpayer billions. We need to get the backlog down. But fundamentally we need to do what it compassionate and fair.”

Key points

• Sunak claims small boats crackdown going ‘much better than expected’ – despite upturn in crossings
• PM heads to Nato summit to urge allies to hike defence spending
• Biden meets Lithuanian President Gitanas ahead of Nato summit

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