Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has said he overheard the French and UK coastguard arranging for a migrant dinghy to be brought to Dover.

Speaking on GB News he said: “They could see we were trying to cover the migrant crisis and they wanted to intimidate us. And that is not surprising because just a couple of hours after that incident we witnessed, about two or three hours later, a migrant mega dinghy.

“About 100 illegal immigrants, almost all men, being actively assisted by the French.

“They were handing over life jackets to the illegal immigrants, making no attempt at all to stop the illegal immigrants. And at one point, even more shockingly, the migrant dinghy went back to the beach to pick up some more illegal immigrants.

“And instead of stopping them and stopping the boat re-embarking, the French police on the beach did absolutely nothing.

“So Shabana Mahmood has sent half a billion pounds of our money to France, supposedly to protect the border, and as these pictures demonstrate, the French are not doing that.

“I’d like to pick up the point that Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, made, claiming the numbers are down. Well, I asked Matt, our fishing boat skipper, about this, and Matt said that this year he’s had more fishing trips canceled than ever before because the weather on the Channel has been so bad.

“I know it’s been sunny weather on land, but the sea has been rough. Lots of fishing trips were canceled, and that is why the migrant dinghy numbers have gone down.

“It’s not because Shabana Mahmood’s plan is working; she’s handing over half a billion pounds of our money, and the French are doing nothing.

“And now, to add insult to injury, there’s now this new route. We were tracking it on the radar, and we were tracking it by listening into the coastguard radio communications, both in French and English, so we could see it happening and we could hear it happening in real time.

“Basically the French coastguard and the British coastguard and British Border Force were coordinating with each other. So the French coastguard and the French maritime authorities were shadowing. They were escorting the migrant dinghy from that location.

“They were escorting it to the median line, 50 or so miles north in the English Channel, and they were coordinating with the the lifeboat in Eastbourne and border force vessels in Ramsgate, who then came down from Ramsgate and from Eastbourne to meet the illegal migrant dinghy halfway and pick up the illegal immigrants, and then they ferried them to Dover.

“That is a completely new route. It’s the furthest south and the furthest west they’ve ever gone, and it’s the longest crossing they’ve attempted.

“So, on a single day, we’ve had the French shooting in the vicinity of me, a Shadow Home Secretary. We’ve seen them helping illegal immigrants with life jackets, failing to prevent embarkations from a beach, failing to prevent the migrant boats at sea, even though the Belgians can do that perfectly safely and very effectively.

“And we’ve seen them ushering, escorting the boat 40 or 50 miles into the middle of the Channel down in the Eastbound direction.

“Complete failure, and Shabana Mahmood is paying them half a billion pounds of our money for this.

“It’s not working. The only thing protecting our borders, the only thing protecting our borders, is the weather. That is the truth of it. And tomorrow, the sea is going to be very flat, and I fear we’re going to see quite large numbers of crossings tomorrow.”