Migrants are sleeping outside one of London's best known landmarks in new crisis

Migrants are camping outside one of Britain's most famous landmarks as the small boat crisis intensifies, the Daily Express can reveal. Around 50 people - mainly from Eritrea - are sleeping rough over Easter on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. Witnesses have said the number has grown over the last three months, from "five to ten" to dozens in recent days.

The desperate migrants sleep on pieces of cardboard and use sleeping bags to stay warm at the cathedral, near London's Victoria Station. Some have even pitched tents.

Westminster Council told the Daily Express "most" of the rough sleepers have travelled to the area from other parts of the country.

Security officers arrive early every morning to wake them up and move them on before services at the cathedral start but the migrants move their belongings underneath a nearby tree and then shift them back later in the day.

Witnesses said "95%" of those sleeping rough outside the cathedral say they are Eritrean.

Some said they arrived in the UK on small boats and now want to be put in taxpayer-funded hotel rooms.

Charities have warned the number of migrants registering as homeless has spiked over the past 12 months.

More than 9,000 people have crossed the Channel so far in 2025, a record number for the first four months of a calendar year.

And on Friday another migrant died trying to reach the UK in a small boat.

Lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter raced to the middle of the Channel after a medical emergency - but a man was pronounced dead as a Border Force vessel returned to Dover. It brings the tragic death toll this year to eight.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Our weak Labour Government has lost control of our borders and turned us into soft touch Britain.

"They have presided over record ever levels of illegal small boats crossings so far this year, scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it started and allowed human rights lawyers to keep dangerous criminals in the UK.

"Now we see the effects of all this on the streets up and down the UK."

Shadow Home Office Minister Matt Vickers said: "Labour is failing Britain with their soft-touch approach to immigration.

"They scrapped the Rwanda plan, and their reckless Border Security Bill will undo rules that prevent illegal migrants from gaining permanent rights to stay.

"Their lack of seriousness on immigration has left our country exposed and vulnerable.

"Under new Conservative leadership, we have effective and deliverable policies.

"We're calling for a doubling of the time required to claim Indefinite Leave to Remain, new conditions ensuring migrants contribute to the UK before gaining ILR, and strict rules on citizenship because Britain deserves better."

Tory MP Neil O'Brien told the Daily Express: "The number of small boats arriving has exploded and the consequences in terms of social chaos are visible right across the country.

"Public services are stretched and every part of the country is increasingly affected."

Robert Bates, of the Centre for Migration Control, said: "The rot caused by the failure of our immigration system strikes at the very heart of this country.

"These photos show that, far from assimilation, open borders have admitted large numbers of people who neither know, nor care, about the heritage of this country.

"On this holiest of weekends, the fact they are literally on the doorsteps of a Christian place of worship is all too apt a metaphor for the soft touch that this country has become."

The alarming pictures published at Westminster Cathedral by the Express today highlight the growing pressure on asylum accommodation and hotels.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Westminster said: "We are aware of the complex and sensitive situation involving groups of people outside Westminster Cathedral, including individuals who are homeless and others who may be seeking asylum or fleeing conflict.

"Those who find shelter here cooperate with the needs of the Cathedral.

"We remain in close contact with local authorities and support agencies to explore appropriate and compassionate responses.

"Where we are able, we are offering assistance, including signposting individuals to relevant services. The Catholic Church has two centres close by where homeless people find support."

A Westminster City Council spokesperson said: "We have been made aware of a number of people sleeping rough outside Westminster Cathedral.

"Rough sleeping is complex, and we work tirelessly with our own teams and the voluntary sector to provide much support as possible to help people off the streets, to places of safety. Our outreach team are assessing the situation and will continue to support the group best we can.

"We note that most of the individuals currently displaced at the Cathedral have travelled into Westminster from other areas of London and the wider country. This is a national problem, and whilst working with other local organisations we do all that we can, this does require a national response."

A government source said: "128,000 people crossed the Channel under the last Conservative government.

"More than 30,000 people arrived in just twenty weeks between Boris Johnson winning his no-confidence vote in June 2022 and Jeremy Hunt presenting his Emergency Budget that November, because the Tories were too busy fighting amongst themselves and crashing the economy to worry about protecting our borders.

"That was the disastrous record they left behind, with border security broken and criminal smuggling gangs laughing all the way to the bank."

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

More than 38,000 migrants are staying in hotel rooms, costing £5.5 million a day. A further 65,707 are in other forms of accommodation.

Labour has vowed to close asylum hotels and process claims quicker so that migrants can be moved into dispersal accommodation.

Putting someone in a hotel room costs £145 per night, compared with £14 for accommodation such as houses, bedsits and flats, the National Audit Office said.

But councils have warned the Government that housing markets and schools are being overwhelmed by would-be refugees being sent across the country.

Kent County Council warned, in a submission to the Home Affairs Select Committee: "A Home Office contractor continues to procure properties in Kent, and this only exacerbates the issue of Local Authorities not being able to secure properties in the private rented sector, because they are unable to compete with the financial incentives offered.

"This is all in the context of a wider financial and housing affordability crisis with many of our own residents also requiring homelessness support."

Tamworth Borough Council added: "Whilst it is understood that there is a crisis, the perceived competition for private sector rented properties is adding to the housing crisis.

"This occurs especially in areas where the demand is for accommodation for young single men."

The Chartered Institute of Housing revealed a single migrant staying in a hotel room costs more than £54,000 a year.

A record number of migrants have crossed the English Channel in the first four months of this year.

Some 9,099 have arrived 42% higher than at the same point last year, when the total stood at 6,265, and 81% higher than at this stage in 2023, when the total was 4,899.

More arrivals have been recorded in January to April 2025 than in the equivalent four-month period in any year since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.

Home Office figures show 705 people made the journey in 12 boats on Tuesday.

Last Saturday, 656 people made the crossing in 11 boats, which at the time was the highest daily number for the year.

These daily totals are more typically associated with busy crossing days in the Summer, with August and September considered the "peak" months for smugglers.

Talking about yesterday's Channel death a Kent Police spokesperson said: "Kent Police was called at 8.26am on Friday 18 April 2025 after a Border Force patrol responded to a medical emergency on a small boat in the English Channel. A man has since been pronounced deceased.

"Officers have launched an investigation to establish the circumstances leading to the man's death.

"The priority remains to establish the man's identity in order to notify his family.

"Officers are currently at Dover Lifeboat Station while initial enquiries are underway."