The Home Secretary said the Government has a moral responsibility to tackle the small boats crisis, but refused to say when the number of people arriving over the English Channel will decline.

Yvette Cooper said she wanted to see them fall sharply, but did not set a deadline of when the target would be met.

Speaking on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One, Ms 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.”

She added: “There is a history of home secretaries and prime ministers making grand promises but never actually having a proper plan.

“The approach we are taking to this is really step by step, we are putting in place the things that we need, the agreements with other countries, the stronger returns arrangements, the much stronger law enforcement, the operations with Germany to go after the smugglers’ supply chains, the operations with Italy to go after the illicit finance.”

When you see these flimsy boats, the way that it's women and kids who get put in the middle of the boats, so when the boat folds, they are the people who get crushed, who end up drowning

Speaking during a visit to Italy this week, where she was due to meet the country’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Ms Cooper said there was a principled reason to try to tackle boat crossings, as well as due to the impact on British services.

“We have a responsibility, a moral responsibility to go after those gangs who are putting lives at risk,” she said.

“When you see these flimsy boats, the way that it’s women and kids who get put in the middle of the boats, so when the boat folds, they are the people who get crushed, who end up drowning.”

Thursday was the busiest December day ever for small boat crossings, with Home Office data showing 609 people arriving.

Some 34,880 people have arrived in the crafts over the English Channel this year.

It represents a figure 20% higher than last year.

Legal migration still remains high, with total long-term net migration provisionally estimated at 728,000 up to the end of June 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The boat crossing numbers are still lower than the record high in 2022, but Ms Cooper acknowledged that it would be “no comfort” to the public if numbers continued to remain at high levels.

The Labour Cabinet minister said they would be thousands higher if the Conservatives had won July’s election.

Ms Cooper said: “What we inherited from the first half of this year… record high levels of boat crossings, had that continued we were on track really for the worst year ever for small boat crossings.

“Had that continued we would have had many thousands more crossings over the course of the summer and through the autumn.

“As it is, we’re around a quarter lower than 2022, that was the peak year.

“But look, that is no comfort when you still have these small boat crossings, where we’ve got lives being put at risk and huge numbers of lives being lost, and also these criminal gangs are profiting from undermining our border security.”

Ms Cooper refused to rule out using a third country to process asylum claims, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the Government for “pretending they’re tough on immigration”, on Camilla Tominey’s GB News show.

Mrs Badenoch said: “I’m not going to run away from the subject of immigration. I never have. Labour are pretending that they’re tough on immigration, when actually they stopped us from doing quite a lot of things.”

Asked about a cap on migration, she said: “What I said during the leadership contest is that a cap on its own is not enough, that numbers matter. So yes, a cap, but culture matters more.

“Who is coming into the country? How are we integrating them? How are we making sure that the people who come to this country care about it? This is not a hostel, it’s not a dormitory. This is our home, and then making sure that the leadership follows through.”

Meanwhile, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp told broadcasters Labour was “foolish” to scrap the Rwanda deterrent scheme for migrants, and said it was the driving factor behind the rise in small boat crossings.

We have a responsibility, a moral responsibility to go after those gangs who are putting lives at risk

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, he said: “The reason those illegal and dangerous small boat crossings have gone up under Labour is they scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it had even started.

“Now the NCA (National Crime Agency) have told us you need a deterrent to stop the boats.

“Law enforcement alone is not enough and that’s why it was so foolish for Labour to scrap that Rwanda deterrent there before it even started.”

Mr Philp said it was “shocking” that his opposite number was unable to say when crossings would fall, adding: “as they struggle to answer simple questions the British people are paying millions of pounds a day to house illegal asylum seekers in hotels”.

Speaking on using a third country to process claims, Ms Cooper said: “We will look at whatever works.

“Clearly everything has to meet proper international standards, clearly it has to be effective and has to deliver results.”

It comes as the Home Office confirmed a new cross-Government unit would be introduced in a bid to bolster security after Ms Cooper visited Rome to discuss irregular migration with her Italian counterpart.

The unit will coordinate the work of the Foreign Office and the Home Office and be responsible for responsible for ensuring that UK embassies worldwide are “prioritising” the increase of returns and reduction of small boat crossings.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy insisted the departments were working “hand in glove” to tackle the issue.

“This Foreign Office is working hand in glove with the Home Office to tackle irregular migration with our new Joint International Irregular Migration Unit,” he said.

Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman suggested ministers should launch a royal commission on migration to set an overall approach to the issue.

She told Sky News: “I think that we need a bit of a wider conversation with the public on this in terms of what people actually want and what is achievable, because people are often in two places at once on this.”