It isn’t just a massive political challenge for Rishi Sunak: most of Europe is also struggling to curb illegal immigration.
From Giorgia Meloni in Italy to Sunak in Westminster, political leaders are struggling to come up with a robust solution to this growing crisis.
That includes in Spain, which saw a huge growth in illegal immigration during the whole of 2023.
In fact, the scale of these arrivals almost doubled compared to the year before, underlining the massive increase in numbers now coming to Europe.
According to the official data in Spain, as 2023 came to an end 57,000 illegal migrants got to Spain.
In fact the actual number was an eye-watering 56,852 people arriving illegally in the country, many of them coming via small boats – a very similar picture to that of England which has seen crossings from France.
The Canary Islands saw a whopping 154 per cent increase in these illegal arrivals year-on-year, with almost 40,000 people arriving in 2023.
Overall, the increase that Spain saw last year amounted to a big 82 per cent surge, reflecting the huge challenge now facing the Spanish Government.
Spain seems to be increasingly divided with the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez re-elected – but only with the support of the far-left and Catalan separatists.
The conservative Popular Party actually won the most votes at the last Spanish General Election, but the coalition of socialist-supporting parties meant that Pedro Sanchez remained in post as PM.
But when you look ahead to the next European Elections you can see how the verdict from voters in Spain has shifted since 2019.
A Sigma Dos poll found the conservative Popular Party once again leading Pedro Sanchez’s PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) by 9 points, 38 per cent to 29 per cent.
That represents a dramatic change since the 2019 Euro Election result in Spain, with the conservatives up a whopping 18 points and the socialists down by 4.
Meanwhile the nationalist, Eurosceptic Vox party is now in third place. Only founded in 2013, the party has seen it’s support double since the last European Election and is now on 12 per cent.
And in fourth is the left-wing Sumar party who are now on 10 per cent, in fourth place.
So with illegal immigration into Spain surging it looks like the next Euro Election could, as we’re seeing across the continent, see a victory for more conservative and Eurosceptic forces.