Home secretary Yvette Cooper has repeatedly failed to say when the number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats will come down.
Keir Starmer pledged to “smash the gangs” controlling the people smuggling operation before the election, but thousands more have made the dangerous journey since then.
On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC 1 this morning, Cooper said the number of crossings was “deeply damaging” and “puts lives at risk”.
Kuenssberg asked her: “The question that our viewers watching and listening to you have is when will they see a difference?
“People see the numbers continuing to go up. People see more hotels being used to house people without permission in their towns.
“So when can people expect to see a difference? When can you expect to see the numbers of small boats coming down if you’re approach is the right one?”
After the home secretary appeared to dodge the question, Kuenssberg said: “I do think the question that people want to know is when will we see a difference?
“This government now seems to be fond of giving us timelines and targets and milestones. So when can people expect to see a difference, to see the number of boat crossings coming down, to see the number of asylum hotels coming down too?”
Cooper said the government was cutting the existing backlog of asylum claims.
Trying a third time to get an answer, the presenter said: “I will ask you again. When can our viewers expect to see the numbers making small boat crossings – putting their lives at risk trying to get to the UK – when can they expect that to come down?
Cooper said: “Of course we want to see the boat crossings come down as rapidly as possible. What we’re not going to do is deal with this by slogans.”
Kuenssberg then told her: “But home secretary, this is not about slogans. When it comes to something like waiting lists and the NHS, the government is very happy to put targets on that and say ‘measure us by whether we hit those’.
“When it comes to kids’ education, the government’s been very happy to put a target on that and say ‘judge us by this measure’.
“When it comes to this issue, you won’t give us a yardstick by when people can expect a significant difference. Why not, because it makes it feel like it’s not a priority to the government in the way that some other issues are.”
But Cooper said: “We’ve made clear that border security is one of the foundational issues, before you get to any of the missions. We’ve been clear that we need to reduce both legal migration and illegal migration.
“There is a history of home secretaries and prime ministers making grand promises, but never actually having a proper plan. The approach we’re taking to this is step by step.
“We are putting in place the things that we need – the agreements with other countries, the stronger returns arrangements, much stronger law enforcement, the operations with Germany to go after the smuggler supply chains, the operations with Italy to go after the illicit finance.”
She added: “I think we’re being really clear and straight with people about the complexity of this because the gimmicks did not work.”