Rishi Sunak has conceded that the “stop the boats” slogan the government adopted during his tenure as prime minister was “too stark” and “too binary”.
The backbench Conservative MP said his focus on stopping migrants crossing the Channel was correct, however he said that the way the message was given to the public “wasn’t quite right”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast that while he believed the “five pledges” he advocated during his time in office were the right ones, he should have placed those priorities “in a better context for exactly how challenging it was”.
He added: “Our generosity is limitless, and our compassion is limitless, but our resources are not…
“It’s just fundamentally unfair, and fairness is central to our national character, and when people see this happening, I think it undermines that sense of fairness on which our society, our way of life, is based on.”
Sunak unveiled the “Stop the boats” slogan during his 2023 New Year’s speech as one of his “five pledges” for government. At the time, the then-PM pledged to “halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.”
“Stop the boats” featured as number five among the government’s priorities and was initially the responsibility of then-home secretary Suella Braverman. Announcing the slogan in January 2023, Sunak said: “We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed.”
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James Cleverly admits ‘Stop the boats’ pledge was a mistake and ‘unachievable’
In June 2024, weeks before the general election on 4 July, it was found that a record number of people seeking asylum in small boats had crossed the Channel in the first six months of the year. The provisional total for the year was recorded at 12,901.
Reflecting on his decision to call a summer general election, months ahead of expectations, Sunak denied it was a snap decision.
He said “I thought about it hard, and I had been thinking about it for quite a while, what the right thing to do was.
“When I reflect back on it, I know the reasons why I did it, I thought hard about it, and what I have not ever heard, really, in a compelling fashion, is what would have dramatically improved three months later.
“I think getting the Rwanda scheme up and running was going to be hard, and I think it would have required a mandate.
“Similarly, tax and spend, we’ve been having these conversations, I wanted to do quite radical things, whether on welfare spending or others, and I think those would have been hard to do without a mandate.”
He went on to suggest that he would back his successor, Kemi Badenoch, if she wanted to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and that he would cut welfare spending to pay for an increase in the defence budget.
Sunak said: “I think, quite frankly, that is the most important thing for the country to do next, so that we can fund defence adequately.”
James Cleverly, who served as home secretary under Sunak, has also admitted that his erstwhile department’s pledge to “Stop the boats” was a political error.
During the 2024 Conservative leadership race, Cleverly, who oversaw the government’s response to illegal immigration during his time at the Home Office, said the slogan reduced a “very complicated and challenging problem into a sound bite.”
He acknowledged that the phrase, which he repeated incessantly from November 2023 to July 2024, effectively imposed a yardstick whereby every “even one boat crossing” ensured the government’s response could be dismissed as a failure.
Speaking at a Conservative conference fringe event hosted by centre-right think tank Onward, Cleverly reflected regretfully that he had inherited the “Stop the boats” slogan after succeeding Suella Braverman as home secretary in late 2023.
Sunak also spoke in Treasury questions on Tuesday to urge the government to go further and seize Russian assets to benefit Ukraine.
The former prime minister said the decision by the United States to pause and review its military assistance to Ukraine highlighted the need for Europe to find “considerably more resources”.
Speaking at Treasury questions on Tuesday morning, Sunak told the House of Commons: “Events overnight make it even clearer that Europe must find considerably more resources for Ukraine.
“The chancellor has rightly continued our policy of using the interest on frozen Russian state assets to benefit Ukraine, but I believe now is the moment to go further and to actually seize those assets.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violates the principle of sovereign equality providing a basis in international law for this and by acting in concert with our allies we can ensure there are no risks to financial stability.”
He added: “So can I urge the chancellor to push for co-ordinated action to seize those frozen Russian state assets, give that money to the Ukrainians so that they can defend their country and rebuild it too?”
Rachel Reeves responded that it is “incredibly complicated” to take further action in line with international law but added Russia should “pay for the damage that Russia has caused”.
The chancellor said: “As the prime minister said yesterday, we would look at going further but as [he] knows it is incredibly complicated to do that in line with international law, but we keep all options on the table because [he] is absolutely right, Russia should pay for the damage that Russia has caused.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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