Almost 1,300 small boat migrants have reached Britain in just four days – the busiest period so far this year. The Home Office confirmed 609 migrants were brought ashore on Monday – pushing this year’s running total past the 20,000 mark. It means the four-day period from Friday to Monday saw 1,282 arrive in total, beating this year’s previous four-day high of 1,202, set in June. Since January 1, 20,478 migrants have now reached Britain by crossing the Channel illegally. There was a further unconfirmed number of arrivals on Tuesday, with Border Force vessels busy picking up migrants from early in the morning. Monday’s departures from France witnessed tragic scenes as two men died and two women were injured as they attempted the perilous crossing. French authorities said the men, one in his 30s and the other in his 40s, died after leaving the coast at Berck overnight. The women were taken to hospital after suffering burns to large areas of their bodies, the authorities said. Last Monday a ten-year-old child and two women were crushed to death ⁠attempting to cross the Channel on an inflatable dinghy carrying 105 people.

It came after Labour was accused of ‘completely losing its grip’ on the Channel crisis after a controversial migrant landing at Gosport, Hampshire. There were ugly scenes on Sunday night as 149 migrants who had been picked up mid-Channel were brought into the town aboard two RNLI lifeboats, after a 70-mile voyage from Normandy. The entire port town was placed under a dispersal order by police, meaning residents could face arrest if they refused to obey officers’ instructions. The dispersal order imposed on Sunday evening covered the entire town until 7am on Tuesday, with further restrictions imposed to prohibit masks and face coverings during protests.

Gosport’s Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage said: ‘I hugely appreciate the frustrations of local people and their anger. This is a situation that none of us wanted. ‘It’s the hallmark of a Government that has completely lost its grip.’ The Portsmouth area has been a flashpoint for anti-migrant protests since last month when 140 migrants were unloaded at Eastney marina, to the east of the city.

Several migrant dinghies have headed towards the Hampshire coast in recent weeks after being launched from Normandy in northern France, hundreds of miles from the usual Calais to Dover route. Officials have said the change in tactics by trafficking gangs is a result of extra beach patrols by French police in the Calais area, under a £662million deal for additional security signed by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in April. Last week it emerged that Labour’s 'one in, one out' migrant deal with France had been scrapped little more than a year after it came into operation.

The Home Office announced the scheme – which allowed Channel small boat migrants to be returned to France – was 'no longer processing new cases'. Prime Minister Andy Burnham personally intervened in a bid to save the deal but was rebuffed by French president Emmanuel Macron, it is understood. There had been an expectation that it would be extended – at least until the end of this month and possibly longer. But the French have instead voiced their aspiration for a wider deal which would see Britain accepting migrants not only from France but from other parts of the European Union too.

The scheme’s failure will be a blow to Labour's attempts at tackling the Channel crisis and could risk an up-tick in small boat arrivals after recent falls. Cases that are already in the system will continue, the Home Office said, including bringing migrants to Britain from France if they are accepted under the reciprocal terms of the deal. The first removal under the scheme took place on September 18 last year. In all, more than 1,500 migrants have been returned to France and 'just under' 1,500 have come to the UK, it is understood.