โFrench doing nothing whatsoever!โ Tory fumes as he follows migrants crossing | Politics | News
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp films people thought to be migrants on board a small boat off the (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA)
A Tory MP following migrants trying to cross the Channel has slammed the French for “doing nothing whatsoever” to prevent the perilous journeys.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused French gendarmes of a โshameful dereliction of dutyโ after they allowed a suspected smuggler who fired up the dinghy’s engine to walk away free as the vessel departed.
He said officers could easily have prevented the departure because the water was only โknee deepโ.
And he revealed how male asylum seekers were so desperate to reach the UK that they pushed women and children off in another day of carnage in the Channel.
It comes as smugglers launched a series of coordinated launches across northern France.
Chris Philp confronted smugglers in charge of the boat (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA)
As many as 700 migrants are feared to be crossing the Channel on Wednesday.
Mr Philp said: “The illegal immigrants had pushed off a number of women and children who were then left behind.
โThe French police are standing aside, doing absolutely nothing at all to stop this re-embarkation.
โWe are only knee-deep in water, and it would be very easy for the French police to stop this dinghy.โ
The migrants then ignored Mr Philpโs questions on where they were from.
He added: โItโs absolutely rammed full.โ
The Shadow Home Secretary then confronted the man trying to fire up the engine on the dinghy carrying about 100 people.
He shouts: โYou are breaking the law. You are attempting to enter the UK illegally. That is a criminal offence.โ
Mr Philp added: โI identified and confronted the people smuggler who started the engine and co-ordinated the migrants to push off.
โHe left the boat before it departed.
โI asked the Gendarmes to arrest him as he walked up the beach, but they refused.
โItโs a shameful dereliction of duty.โ
French authorities monitor a dinghy in the Channel (Image: Getty)
The Shadow Home Secretary tracked the group of roughly 100 migrants to a beach in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Walking alongside them, he said: “There are no French police on this beach whatsoever. In this group, there are probably 20 or 30 illegal migrants, mostly young men, it looks like mainly from sub-Saharan Africa.
“And yesterday, the French were assisting the migrant dinghy by handing out life jackets. This group seem to have got themselves life jackets already, and the French made no attempt to stop the embarkation.”
In a clip posted on X, as the suspected migrants were waiting for a boat to arrive, he accused the French of “doing nothing whatsoever”.
Mr Philp stressed he managed to find the large group “within a matter of hours” of reporting on the crisis from the French coast.
He said: “Shabana Mahmood should not be paying half a billion pounds of our money to the French when they’re failing to stop these embarkations. I only arrived here yesterday, and I managed to find this group of illegal immigrants in just a matter of a few hours.
“So why haven’t the French police been able to do that? Andy Burnham’s claim that this problem has been solved is clearly ridiculous.”
Migrants board a smugglers’ boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Graveli (Image: AFP via Getty)
Criticising the Prime Minister further, Mr Philp argued it is “nonsense” of the Government to claim its actions have secured Britain’s borders.
He said: “The reduced numbers are simply down to the weather. The sea and the Channel has been quite choppy so far this year, the only thing protecting our borders is essentially the wave height in the English Channel, it is not a deal.
“And as you can see from the evidence surrounding me right now, Andy Burnham’s claim this problem has been solved is complete nonsense.”
French warships are patrolling as far south as Rue amid fears that smugglers are expanding their routes into the UK.
It represents a significant intensification in patrols in that region, with three navy vessels between Fort-Mahon-Plage and Le Touquet.
One maritime security source told GB News: “What we’re seeing here is a full-frontal assault by the criminal gangs.
“For weeks, they’ve been frustrated by increased police patrols, hampering their ability to launch boats from their regular push-off points around Calais and Dunkirk.
“That’s forced a switch in tactics, with most launches happening up to a hundred miles south of Dunkirk, around the Dieppe area.”
The source added: “What we’re seeing is the kind of surge tactics we haven’t seen in the Channel for quite some time.
“It’s an attempt to overwhelm and stretch the French police.
“Even with the millions of pounds of extra funding the French are getting from the UK, they still can’t be everywhere at once.
“And there’s no doubt this has worked today. Hundreds have already managed to cross, and the day is far from over.”
