Mastodawn

Visa overstays significantly outnumber small boat arrivals.

While small boat arrivals reached 41,000 in 2025, they represent only a fraction of the "irregular" population

Visa overstays are in the hundreds of thousands

But

"Stop the Boats" - is easy to chant if you have three brain cells, "Stop the Visa Overstays," not so much

Also, visa overstays don't allow for a twisted evocation of British military defeat and retreat from Europe (shurely desperate nostalgia, -ed).

And visa overstays are not as televisual - no dramatic beach scenes...