How ‘Small Boats Week’ turned into a nightmare for Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman

The Conservatives started their self-proclaimed “Small Boats Week” on the offensive with a blitz of eye-catching policies, attacks on “lefty lawyers” and even some expletives. 

After asylum seekers had started to arrive on the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge, Tory attack dog Lee Anderson said if they didn’t like it they could “f*** off back to France”. The government even briefed out that it was considering sending migrants to Ascension Island, a tiny volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic.

However, quickly things turned from farce, with the 39 asylum seekers having to leave the barge after bacteria was found in the water supply, to tragedy, as six Afghans died while trying to cross the channel on Saturday morning.

The government was left looking heartless and ineffective, while Labour was able to take control of the narrative. What happened, and how did “Small Boats Week” go wrong?

'Small Boats Week'

Ever since Labour caught the government off guard with a controversial - if effective - attack advert over Easter recess, which slammed Rishi Sunak over the Tories’ record on crime, Number 10 has been planning a series of interventions for Parliament’s summer break.

It started with “Energy Week”, as Sunak announced fresh oil and gas licences for the North Sea and briefed out “pro-motorist” policies such as a review of low-traffic neighbourhoods. Today (14 August) marked the start of “Health Week”, with Steve Barclay offering Scottish and Welsh NHS patients the chance to get treated in England, despite the record waiting lists, to try and highlight the poor records of the SNP and Labour over the borders.

But the message the Tories really wanted to land was during “Small Boats Week”, which ended yesterday (13 August). While Labour has far better polling on the NHS and Net Zero remains popular, the government’s high-profile Rwanda plan generally has good approval ratings (47% in a recent Deltapoll). The public appears to like a tough stance on immigration, so Sunak and his strategists feel that it’s an area where they can attack Labour.

“Small Boats Week” was timed to coincide with the first arrivals on the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge on Monday (7 August), which had been delayed for a few weeks due to fire safety concerns. The Fire Brigades Union described the boat - which can house 500 male asylum seekers - as a “death trap”.

The day after, Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced a task force so “crooked immigration lawyers” can “be rooted out and brought to justice”. The same day, Anderson said asylum seekers complaining about the barge should “f*** off back to France”.

The deputy party chairman was reportedly given licence by Number 10 not to hold back, in an attempt to highlight the division with Labour. Cabinet members noticeably backed Anderson, with Justice Secretary Alex Chalk saying that “he does it in salty terms, that’s his style, but his indignation is well placed”.

The government even briefed out that it was considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island, in an attempt to control the narrative. The tiny volcanic rock, 4,000 miles away in the middle of the Atlantic, has around 800 inhabitants and no hospital. 

However behind the scenes, things were starting to unravel.

Bibby Stockholm

The plan to place 500 male asylum seekers on the giant barge in Portland harbour, in Dorset, had been marred with problems from the start. The arrival was initially delayed over fire safety concerns on the boat, with one source telling The Times that the vessel was like a “floating Grenfell”.

The government also faced protests from local residents, who didn’t want the asylum barge in Portland. Dad Kelvin Thomson said that he feared for the safety of women living in the area with the arrival of “bored single men”, and told PA Media that he had bought pepper spray and a rape alarm for his daughter.

While the Red Cross said the boat was completely inappropriate for people who may have fled war, and could cause “significant suffering” and “re-traumatise” asylum seekers.

And on the very first day of “Small Boats Week” (7 August), as the first people were finally arriving on board the Bibby Stockholm, Dorset Council said it alerted Home Office contractors that it had found traces of Legionella in the water supply. This bacteria causes legionnaires’ disease, a type of severe pneumonia which can be deadly.

The Home Office says that the UK Health Security Agency’s local team was informed of the bacteria on Wednesday evening (9 August), and on Thursday a meeting was convened between the UKHSA, the NHS, Dorset Council and the government. Number 10 was also informed. Six more migrants arrived on the barge, despite the Home Office being aware of the Legionella problem.

That same day (10 August), day four of “Small Boats Week”, the number of arrivals across the Channel hit 100,000 since 2018. And then on Friday - to make the government look even more impotent - all of the new arrivals had to be moved off the Bibby Stockholm due to the bacteria issue.

Braverman was nowhere to be seen, Sunak was on holiday in California and the government was left looking completely unable to stem the tide of small boats - with even its high profile policies, Rwanda and the barge, appearing unworkable.

Tragedy in the Channel

And if any politician needed a reminder of the need to tackle the asylum crisis, on Saturday morning (12 August) tragedy struck when a boat carrying more than 60 migrants sank near Sangatte, France.

A rescue operation was mounted by two British ships, five French vessels and a helicopter and at least 55 people were rescued, however six Afghan men died. Braverman said on Twitter that it was a “tragic loss of life”, however the deaths renewed focus on Lee Anderson’s “salty” language from earlier in the week.

On 8 August, a YouGov poll showed that eight in 10 people believe that the government is handling immigration badly, and that opinion is only likely to have got worse after “Small Boats Week”. 

What started as an attack on Labour, ended up with the opposition hogging the headlines. Shadow cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson said criminal gangs were "running rings" around the government, describing the asylum backlog as "completely out of control".

Phillipson said the government was presiding over a Home Office which was "increasingly shambolic and completely incompetent". The backlog is currently at around 172,000, which is almost six times higher than between 2014 and 2017 - when it remained relatively stable.

"There is a total failure to do the basics: process cases, get decisions made as quickly as possible and then you can take action,” Phillipson told BBC Breakfast. 

“If people don't have a right to be in this country and for those that do you can make sure that they're allowed to get on and live the rest of their lives happily.”

Veteran Tory MP Tim Loughton, who serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee, articulated a pretty clear problem with having a focus on something which, at the moment, is completely out of the government’s control.

“It was probably not a good idea to have a small boat week. It was hostage to fortune,” he said. “No one is stopping the boats as it stands at the moment.”

As recriminations around the Bibby Stockholm continue, Sunak returns from holiday hoping that his fortunes will start to improve. Meanwhile boats keep making the treacherous journey across the Channel.