There's one thing about the "small boats" debate I think often gets missed Since 2018 just under 200k people have arrived in this way the UK population is roughly 69.9m So that's 0.286% of the population. This means that when you talk about pressures on the NHS, housing, benefits and so on - channel crossings are (at most) responsible for 0.286% of that pressure. Before everyone piles on, I'm not suggesting for a minute that this isn't problematic and that channel crossings don't need to be addressed. I also understand why people get particularly frustrated about this issue on the basis of principle or fairness. I'm highlighting the scale of this issue because it is all Reform talk about, and they are now looking to divert a huge chunk of military and financial resources (some of which don't currently exists) into trying to solve the problem. By comparison they rarely talk about health, education, defence, or the economy, and have no detailed policy on any other issues. They have somehow managed to convince people that stopping the boats would solve all of the country's issues. It might help, to the tune of 0.286%, whilst neglecting everything else.