Fury as high politician in Calais says police ought to let migrants cross | Politics | News | EUROtoday

France ought to stand by and let migrants freely cross the Channel to “scare” Labour into taking motion, an ally of the French inside minister claimed.

Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France area, claimed Paris is “guarding the border” for Britain.

And he stated the UK is chargeable for the small boats disaster alongside the folks smugglers.

Despite Britain agreeing handy over greater than £660m to cease migrants leaving their shores, Mr Bertrand claimed “we’re practically forced to beg them to give us part of the cheque they owe us”.

In recent incendiary feedback, the French politician declared: “We should tell the Border Force, ‘This week, stay at home, we don’t want to see you and we’re going to let everyone through.

“Then you’ll see what happens: the English will get scared, and in two days they’ll sit down at the table with proposals to change things. Right now, we’re practically forced to beg them to give us part of the cheque they owe us simply because we’re guarding the border for them. That’s enough.

“Let the migrants through. My proposal isn’t very clever. But it’s the only one that can change things.”

More than 35,000 migrants have crossed the Channel thus far this 12 months, regardless of a one-in-one-out returns deal being agreed between London and Paris.

And greater than 20 folks have died trying to achieve the UK in a small boat.

But Mr Bertrand bizarrely claimed France was detached to the truth that “people are dying every week”, including: “Very clearly, we know who is primarily responsible: the smugglers, the criminals who exploit these networks.

“The second party responsible is the British. Because there wouldn’t be these deaths, there wouldn’t be hundreds of people trying to cross every week, if they didn’t have jobs in Britain.”

Mr Bertrand stated he held Britain, together with people-smugglers, chargeable for deaths within the Channel due to the UK’s “hypocrisy” over its stance on the black market financial system.

He stated: “The British say, ‘now we’re going to set up a legal immigration channel. That means we’re going to accept them legally and then send them back to France’.”

Mr Bertrand, who has backed Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau’s potential Presidential bid in 2027, additionally slammed Keir Starmer’s one-in, one-out deal.

He stated: “Of course, it can’t work. We’ll just end up having two channels, one illegal and one legal.”

French police used pepper spray to cease migrants from reaching a small boat earlier than it set off in the direction of the UK on Friday morning.

Around 100 women and men gathered on Gravelines seaside in northern France hoping to cross the English Channel.

As they started to go for a dinghy within the water, some collided with French police who used a twig to try to cease them.

At least 70 folks made it to the boat and had been pictured taking off throughout the channel in the direction of Dover.