Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hosted ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance in London for talks on joint efforts to disrupt people smuggling. In her first major engagement in the role, she welcomed counterparts from the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand as the number of small-boat crossings in 2025 topped 30,000.\n\nOn Saturday, 1,097 people arrived in 17 boats, taking the 2025 total to 30,100 and marking a record for this point in the year. The rise is about 37% higher than the same point last year and also higher than in 2023. Ms Mahmood described the figures as “utterly unacceptable” and said migrant returns under a deal with France were expected to begin “imminently”. Ahead of Monday’s talks, she said the Five Eyes pact would “agree new measures to protect our border, hitting people smugglers hard”. Attendees included US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Canadian Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and New Zealand’s Judith Collins.\n\nMr Starmer carried out a major reshuffle over the weekend, with changes at the Home Office as Labour seeks to toughen immigration policy ahead of polling in a bid to address the small boats crisis. Ministers discussed using defence sites as temporary accommodation to speed up the end of hotel use, with bases that include housing blocks or large hard-standing areas identified alongside non-military venues. Defence Minister Luke Pollard said a military planning team had been deployed to Border Security Command and the Home Office to help move people from hotels to temporary accommodation, noting that 25 hotels had closed in the past year and that the Prime Minister wants all of them closed. Campaigners criticised the plan, and Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council said the solution lies in faster, fairer decisions and safe housing in communities, enabling refugees to work, study and rebuild their lives.