Priti Patel: I will 'stop 100% of migrant crossings'

Priti Patel promised to stop '100 per cent' of Channel crossings following virtual talks with her counterparts in France, last night.

The Home Secretary was planning to meet the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin today after a verbal spat between both governments over a spike in migrant Channel crossings.

However the visit was cancelled after the terror attack outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on Remembrance Sunday.

A joint statement from both sides of the Channel said: 'Tonight, the Home Secretary spoke to her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin to discuss the problem of small boats crossing the Channel and the operational response to it.

'Both the Home Secretary and Interior Minister agreed to strengthen operational cooperation further. More must be done to stop the dangerous crossings. They agreed to accelerate the delivery of the commitments made in the joint agreement of July 2021 to deliver on their joint determination to prevent 100 per cent of crossings and make this deadly route unviable.'

The French government had said that the UK were treating France as if it was a 'punch ball', after 1,185 migrants made it across the Channel last week.

London had suggested Paris was not doing enough to prevent the migrant boats and threatened not to pay a £54million sum agreed earlier in the year.

The French have assured that the cash would enable them to set up coastal patrols and therefore halt the crossings.