The Border Ledger

Public record · 1997–2026

Who opened Britain — who voted — who paid.

Tap a name. Read what they did in plain English. Check the vote, or the grant. Channel boats are the visible failure. Legal migration is larger. Public money built the machine that sits between the two.

Browse the names See who paid the NGOs

Peak net migration

944,000

ONS, year ending March 2023 — Johnson/Sunak visa regime

Small-boat arrivals

209,000+

Detected Channel crossings, 2018 to August 2026

UK residents born abroad

19%

13.1 million people, ONS June 2024 — up from ~7% in 1991

Rwanda flights after Labour

0

Scheme cancelled 6 July 2024. Treaty ended 16 March 2026

Show the charts — net migration and small boats

ONS · selected years

Net migration

Peak 944,000 in the year to March 2023. 2025 calendar year: 171,000.

Home Office · detections

Small-boat arrivals

2018: 299. 2025: 41,472. 2026 to 28 Aug: 16,483. Cumulative since 2018: 209,000+.

The files

Politicians, courts, councils, and the public bodies that fund the NGOs. Sorted by impact.

26 files

ArchitectLabour

Tony Blair

Prime Minister · 1997–2007

Opened the modern mass-migration era and chose not to cap eastern Europe.

Voted it downLabour

Keir Starmer

Prime Minister · 2024–

Voted against every enforcement bill, cancelled Rwanda on day one, and bound the government to the ECHR.

Public moneyWhitehall

Home Office

The contracting department

Pays the hotels, the advice line, and charities that campaign against its own enforcement bills.

ArchitectLabour

Jack Straw

Home Secretary · 1997–2001

Put the ECHR into British courtrooms, then ran the Home Office as the inflows began.

Had the keysConservative

Boris Johnson

Prime Minister · 2019–2022

Scrapped the net-migration target, then ran the most liberal work-and-study system in modern British history.

Voted it downLabour

Yvette Cooper

Home Secretary, then Foreign Secretary · Home Sec 2024–2025

21 votes against stronger immigration enforcement, then the minister who killed Rwanda.

Public moneyLocal government

Local authorities

Councils of England, Wales and Scotland

Take Home Office grants, house arrivals, and hire the charities that fight removals.

Public moneyNGO

Migrant Help

Charity on a Home Office contract · AIRE 2019–2029

Paid to help people claim — then lobbied against the same government’s removal policy.

ArchitectLabour

Barbara Roche

Immigration Minister · 1999–2001

First minister to sell mass inward migration as a good in itself.

Had the keysConservative

David Cameron

Prime Minister · 2010–2016

Promised 'tens of thousands.' Delivered hundreds of thousands. Kept EU free movement.

Had the keysConservative

Rishi Sunak

Prime Minister · 2022–2024

Held office at the 944,000 peak. Passed two enforcement Acts. Never got a Rwanda flight off the ground.

Legal shieldLabour

Lord Hermer

Attorney General · 2024–

Wrote a legal lock: Britain will never leave the ECHR or defy Strasbourg.

Legal shieldJudiciary

Lord Reed of Allermuir

President of the Supreme Court · President 2020–

Led the unanimous judgment that killed the Rwanda deterrent in law.

Public moneyNHS

NHS trusts and ICBs

Hospitals and commissioners

A per-refugee health tariff — and an untagged hotel caseload in A&E.

Public moneyMoJ

Legal Aid Agency

Ministry of Justice

The taxpayer pays the Home Office case and the lawyers trying to stop it.

Public moneyNGO

Refugee Council

Charity · contractor and campaigner

Home Office money to guide children through the system — and a campaign to keep the system open.

ArchitectLabour

David Blunkett

Home Secretary · 2001–2004

Home Secretary when 'managed migration' became operational policy.

Had the keysConservative

Priti Patel

Home Secretary · 2019–2022

In the chair when the boats became a system, and when the legal-migration taps were opened.

Local powerLabour

Sadiq Khan

Mayor of London · 2016–

Turned the capital into a sanctuary jurisdiction and fought enforcement from City Hall.

Public moneyNGO

Refugee Action

Charity · campaigner

Public money in. Anti-detention and anti-removal campaigning out.

Local powerLabour

Andy Burnham

Mayor of Greater Manchester · 2017–

Regional Labour's voice against enforcement, for 'compassion' as policy.

Voted it downLiberal Democrat

Ed Davey

Leader, Liberal Democrats · Leader 2020–

Whipped a party that voted against every tightening bill of the last parliament.

Voted it downSNP

Stephen Flynn

SNP Westminster leader · Westminster leader 2022–

National party of 'sanctuary' — voted against UK enforcement as a bloc.

Voted it downLabour

David Lammy

Foreign Secretary, then Lord Chancellor · Cabinet 2024–

Cabinet vote against enforcement, then the minister who owns the courts that hear the appeals.

Public moneyWhitehall

Defra, Environment Agency, FSA

The rest of the grant book

Not the border. Still on the taxpayer circuit that feeds the same NGO layer.

Voted it downGreen

Carla Denyer

Green Party leadership · Co-leader 2021–2025; MP

Open-borders party whose councils now move to block Home Office raids.