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Chris Philp\u2019s<\/a> latest attempt to attack Labour\u2019s record on immigration backfired spectacularly after he was hit with a brutal reminder of his own time in government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Labour<\/a> has tried to draw a correlation between good weather in the English Channel and a rise in small boat crossings this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It comes after a new Home Office report found a record 11,074 people arrived on British shores before May this year, a rise of almost 50% compared to this time in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Sky News soon<\/a> found small boat crossings have been rising during spells of both good and bad weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So shadow home secretary Philp promoted Sky\u2019s content on X, and added the following caption: \u201cGovernment\u2019s pathetic attempt to blame weather for record illegal immigrants stands up for less than 3 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He followed that up with a video of himself accusing the government of effectively saying, \u201cthe dog ate my homework\u201d,<\/a> and criticising Labour for cancelling the Tories\u2019 Rwanda scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But unfortunately for the former Tory minister, he was quickly presented with proof that he had once tried to use the same excuse.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Byline Times\u2019 editor Adam Bienkov replied to Philp\u2019s post with the words, \u201cWas this you?\u201d, and a 20-second compilation of the Conservative also trying to explain away small boat crossings when he was in the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Philp, who served as a home office minister under Boris Johnson in 2020, once told the Commons that a hike in small boat crossings was down to global factors, Covid and … the weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n