The behaviour of people arriving in the UK on small boats is “at odds with British values”, the home secretary has claimed.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Suella Braverman said people making the dangerous Channel crossing – who include asylum seekers – were “behaving unacceptably” by “breaking our rules” and “abusing the generosity of the British people”.

But she also claimed criminality was “very closely linked” to their arrival, telling our political correspondent Ali Fortescue: “We see that there are many people coming here illegally who are then getting involved in drugs, who are getting involved in violent crime, who are getting involved in prostitution.

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Small boats migrants are ‘asylum shoppers’, says minister

“All of that is at odds with British values, all of that is unacceptable behaviour.”

The Home Office was unable to point Sky News to crime statistics to back up these claims.

But a source from the department said chief constables and senior police officers had told the home secretary about “increased criminality relating to people who entered the UK on small boats”, and she was “clear that those who enter the UK on small boats are breaking the law by definition of their route of entry”.

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Her remarks come as MPs are debating the Illegal Migration Bill in the Commons, with Tory rebels threatening to throw the government off course by introducing their own amendments .

One wing of the party, lead by veteran Conservative backbencher Tim Loughton, wants to make sure more safe and legal routes are introduced for asylum seekers to come to the UK.

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Speaking in the debate, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the government “accepts the need for greater clarity” in the area and would put a report to MPs within six months “detailing existing and proposed additional safe and legal routes for those in need of protection”.

And he said ministers would “aim to implement the proposed new routes as soon as practicable and in any event by the end of 2024”.

Another amendment being proposed by former Prime Minister Theresa May and former party leader Iain Duncan Smith seeks to protect victims of modern slavery.

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