Objectively, the only solution is to go back into the EU and fully utilise the provision that allows return to the 1st safe (EU) country.
The reason for the small boats is Brexit. Traffickers know that people can't be easily sent back because we are outside the EU.
The irony is excruciating that one of the key architects of the Brexit disaster, Farage, is the one benefitting from the one of the problems it caused while Starmer, who has done more than anyone else to stop the boats, is the one being punished.
Farage won't be able to stop them either. Not without doing something illegal like trying to turn the boats back mid-channel and that will be challenged in the courts. But it won't matter, he will be provided with every get out and excuse under the sun by his supporters, both voters and billionaire press owners.
The problem for Labour is that it is understood to not be racist towards Muslims, unlike Reform, so people believe that they want illegal immigration because the boat people will vote Labour. Even if Farage can't stop the boats, the British MAGA will be content in the knowledge that he shares their racism and hatred of immigrants (apart from rich ones obviously).