UK border chief QUITS after failing to curb number of migrant Channel crossings
The head of the UK's border security command will step down at the end of March after failing to stem the surge in crossings.
The Home Office confirmed Martin Hewitt would leave the post of border security commander after 18 months in the job.
Sir Keir Starmer appointed Mr Hewitt, a former senior police officer, shortly after becoming Prime Minister - tasking him with curbing the number of small boats crossing the Channel.
Since his appointment in September 2024, crossings have continued at sky-high levels - with 58,910 people making the journey in that time.
His tenure also saw the second-highest annual total of people crossing the Channel, with 41,472 people arriving in the UK by small boat last year.
It is understood he will leave at the end of the month, with an interim replacement appointed 'in due course'.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the continuing small boats crisis was down to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.
The Home Office confirmed Martin Hewitt would leave the post of border security commander after 18 months in the job
'The Government's complete failure on small boats isn't down to Martin Hewitt,' he said. 'It's because Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood are too weak to take the necessary action - such as coming out of the European Convention on Human Rights and deporting all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival.
'Labour's decision to cancel the Rwanda removals plan was a disaster - since the election 67,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the channel - an increase of 45 per cent compared to the same period before.
'Martin Hewitt isn't to blame for this - it's down to Shabana Mahmood and Keir Starmer's failings.'
In an interview last year - when he had been in the role for three months - Mr Hewitt asked to be judged on his ability to bring crossing numbers down.
'Definitely judge us on the impact we've had on the number of crossings,' he said.
'Because that is absolutely clear to me from the Prime Minister, from the Home Secretary and I'm sure from the Foreign Secretary.
'That's what my job is here to try and deliver. So that's absolutely, that is the measure.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We would like to thank Martin Hewitt CBE QPM for his dedicated leadership since the creation of the Border Security Command.
'Over the past 18 months, the Border Security Command has brought government agencies, law enforcement and international partners together to tackle people smuggling gangs, as well as seeing the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act into law.'
Prior to his appointment, Mr Hewitt had served as chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, co-ordinating all of Britain's police forces as they enforced Covid lockdown rules.
He was also previously assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and served for seven years with the Royal Artillery.
As border security commander, he was in charge of joining up law enforcement and intelligence agencies to tackle the people smuggling gangs behind small boat crossings in the Channel.
In October 2025, he told MPs that continued crossings were 'frustrating' but insisted that deterring people from making the journey was 'always going to take time'.
So far this year, some 3,863 people have arrived in the UK via small boat, according to official figures, including 144 people in two boats yesterday.
It comes as Labour rebels continue their campaign against Shabana Mahmood's immigration reforms with a threat to force a vote in Parliament.
They want to force a 'symbolic' division on the Home Secretary's plan to double the time it will take immigrants to qualify for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), from five to 10 years.
It comes after former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner became the most high-profile critic of the proposal, labelling it 'un-British'.
Migrants boarded a dangerously-overloaded dinghy off Gravelines beach in northern France and headed for Britain earlier this month
Controversially, the plans would apply retrospectively to migrants already here – affecting 2.2million people who have arrived since 2021.
Ms Rayner said the proposal championed by the Home Secretary amounted to 'moving the goalposts', saying it 'undermines our sense of fair play.
Critics of the plan on the Labour benches are preparing to invoke a little-used parliamentary procedure to force a symbolic vote on the measures in the coming months, the BBC reported.
Communities Secretary Steve Reed stressed that Labour was elected on a manifesto commitment to reform the immigration system. But he admitted there was a 'robust' debate within Labour over the policy.
