Another try at a Boris Johnson and Priti Patel border clampdown?

Every single male migrant who crosses the Channel in small boats will allegedly be detained in a bid to contain the crisis under Boris Johnson’s newest attempt at a border clampdown, it has emerged.

The Prime Minister has reportedly given Home Secretary Priti Patel the go-ahead to develop new powers that would allow male asylum seekers crossing the Narrow Sea to be held in immigration removal centres.

Though the Home Office has not published a breakdown of Channel migrants by age or gender, Miss Patel claims that seven in ten of all people who cross the Narrow Sea are single men under 40. 

Mr Johnson’s new gung-ho attitude to border security is part of a series of populist policies which are intended to shore up his tottering premiership as the embattled Tory leader faces calls to quit over the ‘Partygate’ lockdown scandal enveloping Westminster.

Miss Patel is working closely with Attorney-General Suella Braverman to establish what current laws would allow on detention and what new powers would be needed to be approved by MPs, according to The Times.

Currently only migrants who land on the UK coast are breaking the law and can be detained, rather than those intercepted in the Channel.