Rishi Sunak - live: PM insists small boat policy is 'better than expected' days after new crossing record

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Rishi Sunak insisted his crackdown on small boats is going "much better" than expected, despite a record number of boat crossings.

< p>Speaking to reporters on his way to the NATO summit in Lithuania, the prime minister denied he was wrong to claim his small boat policy was working last month.

This comes after Friday saw a record number of crossings for this year - with 686 arriving on British shores.

The Prime Minister said he had always predicted the number of people arriving in Britain would increase over the summer.

He said his politics should be judged on the trends when he took office.

"The fact that they (the numbers ) are down for five months of the year, the fact that they're still down, even if it's less, than people expect is a much better result than everyone else is expecting was waiting,” he said.

He added, “We need to get people out of hotels, we need to save taxpayers billions. We need to reduce the backlog. But fundamentally, we have to do what is compassionate and right."