𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

If you have a spare hour, I’d implore you to read some of the testimonies at the Cranston Inquiry.

The probe into the deaths of 27 migrants attempting to cross the Channel lays bare a litany of failings and scarcely believable political choices by the French Government.

Officials were ordered to stop talks with the UK about Channel migrant crossings because the nation had been left out of a nuclear submarine deal.

But they were also irate over Brexit and Britain’s plans to push migrant boats back.

Yes, you read that right. They were angry Boris Johnson’s Government had drawn up tactics to intercept and turn dinghies around.

This came after Paris cancelled a scheme to take people caught in the Channel back to Dunkirk.

And it’s what makes the strategy of relying on France to increase interceptions so puzzling.

On too many occasions last year, we heard blood-boiling audio clips of the French arranging for lifejackets to be handed to migrants – before asking Border Force to later give them back.

Yet, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer seems to be pinning his hopes on the one-in-one-out deal with Emmanuel Macron and an increase in French interceptions.

I’d be able to retire if I received a pound for every time I’d heard experts from across politics and border security say that Paris must order French police to go further and stop migrants from crossing the Channel.

The argument AGAINST doing so is that it puts lives at risk.

But the boats are floating deathtraps. I’ve never understood how it’s not putting lives at risk when a boat is allowed to leave.

Perhaps I would have earnt £700 million – the amount the UK has handed over to France?

Today should remind everyone why this plan is destined to fail.

French escort vessels have shadowed scores of dinghies across the Channel, with one coming deep into English waters.

This is because Border Force were so overwhelmed. The Abeille Normandie effectively kept an eye on the dinghy under Border Force vessels raced down from Ramsgate, having dropped other boatloads off.

A tell-tale sign of Border Force being overwhelmed is when the lifeboat is deployed to intercept migrant dinghies.

They are then brought to the UK, where they are processed and taken to their taxpayer-funded accommodation.

The migrants and smugglers know what the game is. As it stands, if they launch their boats and reach UK waters, they’ll be taken by Border Force or the RNLI.

If we accept at face value that France is stopping around of third of crossings, why are the numbers of arrivals not falling?

Because those stopped just try again the next day.

And eventually they’ll make it.

So, the brutal truth is tens of thousands of people will keep crossing the Channel until the vast majority of boats are intercepted and prevented from reaching the UK.

The sad reality is, there still seems to be a complete lack of will in Paris to do enough to end this crisis.

And that’s what could leave Keir Starmer’s migration plans in tatters.

Because very little will seemingly change.