A senior British politician has accused the French government of trying to intimidate him after a warship began a live-fire drill nearby while he was assessing a migrant boat in the Channel.
Chris Philippe, the Conservative home affairs secretary, was on a rented boat in the English Channel on Wednesday morning for a government news interview about the migrant crisis. He was suddenly interrupted by a small French warship, which started what was labeled a live-fire exercise. Philippe claimed this was clear intimidation from the French forces, noting that there were no other vessels in the vicinity, the shots were only fired when the French ship was closest to him, and, notably, there had been no advanced radio warnings.
During a BBC interview, Philippe was at sea when the gunfire erupted, and he recorded the French patrol boat P676 Flemish passing about 300 meters away. These Flemish-class vessels, usually meant for coast guard duties, aren’t equipped with heavy naval weaponry but can have machine guns, and in this instance, it was reported that French officers were using handguns on towed targets for practice.
Philippe conveyed to the BBC that the shooting so near to his boat—given the ample space for the exercise elsewhere—”felt like an attempt at intimidation to stop me from reporting on migrant crossings.” He added:
It’s quite unusual for the French Navy to fire live ammunition to deter visiting British politicians while doing little to prevent illegal crossings in the Channel.
If France were as serious about preventing smuggling as they were with me, then maybe the ships would stop.
Instead, they simply hand over the migrants to the British Coast Guard, making it our problem.
The Conservative official mentioned he intends to file a complaint with the French ambassador.
According to a report from the Times, it appears the French government may have indeed notified the British government about the live-fire drill in advance, but this wasn’t made public. There were reportedly no notices posted for sailors, and no radio warnings were issued. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry stated: “We are in contact with the French authorities to ascertain the full details of this incident.”
The BBC also noted that sources within the French government reported the Flemish was not involved in monitoring illegal migrant vessels during the incident. The Channel migration situation has become quite complex, as evidence emerged in 2020 of a covert operation to escort migrants before they were transferred into British waters.
Following these revelations, the clandestine nature of operations escalated, with French warships reportedly disabling their tracking systems to avoid detection. While not illegal, this practice is discouraged, especially in busy waterways during peacetime.
