The Home Office also said on Sunday that there had been nearly 300 arrests of smuggling gang members last year, as well as the seizure of more than 1,100 small boats and engines.

It said that, if the equipment seized by the NCA had been used, it could have helped 72,000 more people come illegally to the UK. The BBC has been unable to independently verify this claim.

"Clearly, progress is being made, but we're not complacent," Burnham commented.

Reform UK home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said his party would order the navy to force small boats carrying migrants back to France, saying it would be "the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two".

The plan - set to be released in full at a conference on Monday - has been endorsed by "former senior members of our armed forces", Yusuf told the Today programme.

International conventions on the sea allow for states to pick people up from boats if they are in danger of being lost but do not allow for them to be taken to another country without that nation's consent.

Yusuf accepted that the UK and France may have "a diplomatic argument" if French authorities were to refuse to accept migrants escorted back to its shores, but insisted they have a "commitment under international law" to process migrants.

Retired Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe suggested Reform's plan "lacks quite a lot of substance".

"We have the border force already to do this," he told the BBC's Today programme, adding that warships designed for anti-submarine defences "are not best used for ferrying people around".

"You're better off using an actual ferry," he said.

A Labour Party spokesperson said Reform's plans were a "desperate bid" to distract from scrutiny of their party's finances.

Reacting on BBC Breakfast, shadow home secretary Chris Philp repeated calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

"That would enable us to deport every single illegal immigrant within a week of arrival," he said. "Either back to their country of origin if possible, or a safe third country, for example Rwanda, if not."

He said this would bring a "deterrent effect" as migrants would no longer cross the channel if they knew they would be deported straight away.

The Liberal Democrats' immigration and asylum spokesman Will Forster said the government should "redouble its efforts to rebuild our broken relationship with Europe" and "continue to cut down on the asylum backlog".