02-06-2025
No fish deal until France gets serious on Channel boats: Tories urge PM to suspend EU deal amid fury at 'shocking' scenes of police 'waving off' hundreds of migrants near Calais
Labour will today be challenged to halt Sir Keir Starmer 's new fishing deal with the EU until France does more to help stop migrants crossing the Channel.
Senior Tory MP Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, will call on the Government to 'immediately suspend' the 12-year agreement with Brussels.
It comes after more than 1,100 migrants arrived in Britain after crossing the Channel on Saturday - the highest number recorded on a single day so far this year.
The latest Home Office figures show that 1,195 arrived in 19 boats, bringing the provisional annual total so far to 14,812.
This is 42 per cent higher than the same point last year (10,448) and 95 per cent up from the same point in 2023 (7,610), according to an analysis.
French police were seen watching as migrants boarded at a beach in Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkirk, and authorities were then pictured escorting the boats.
France has intercepted just 38 per cent of boats this year, down from 45 per cent last year, 47 per cent in 2023, and 42 per cent in 2022.
This is despite the UK agreeing a £480million deal with France to beef up its efforts to stop migrant crossings in 2023 under former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
As part of his Brexit 'reset' deal announced last month, Sir Keir enraged British fishermen by allowing a further 12 years of access to UK waters for EU boats.
The PM made the 11th-hour concession in order to get his wider 'reset' deal - which also included a new defence pact and an agrifood agreement - over the line.
Mr Philp said he would challenge Home Secretary Yvette Cooper over both the fishing deal and French efforts to stop Channel migrants in Parliament.
He told the Telegraph: 'The French are completely failing to stop these illegal immigrants, despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK taxpayer to do so.
'They are also failing to intercept any boats at sea and return them as the Belgians do. It's time for the Government here to get serious about this.
'The 12-year fishing deal the UK Government recently proposed with the EU, which is itself outrageous, should be immediately suspended until the French actually stop all these illegal immigrants, including using interceptions at sea.
'And if they won't, the fishing deal should be cancelled. I'll be putting this to Yvette Cooper in Parliament on Monday.
'This Government is so weak they surrendered our fishing rights to the French for 12 years while at the same time the French stand by and watch tens of thousands of illegal immigrants flood into the UK.
'It's time for this madness to end.'
Defence Secretary John Healey on Sunday admitted Britain had 'lost control of its over the last five years' as he responded to the 'shocking' scenes on Saturday.
He added: 'We saw the smugglers launching elsewhere and coming around like a taxi to pick them up.'
The Cabinet minister said it is a 'really big problem' that French police are unable to intervene to intercept boats in shallow waters.
He added the UK is pressing for the French to put new rules into operation so they can intervene.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said the French were 'taking Britain for fools'.
He said: 'Since 2015 we have pledged and given the best part of £800million to the French.
'Their officers watched like tourists as over 1,000 young men made the illegal crossing to England.
'We are being taken for fools. We paid them to stop the boats. They only make a half-hearted effort to do so.'
A Home Office spokesperson pointed to measures to share intelligence internationally, enhance enforcement operations in northern France and introduce tougher rules in its immigration legislation.
'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security,' they said.
'The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
'That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.'
