Emmanuel Macron has come under greater fire this morning after an official French report blamed Britain for their failure to stop migrant boat crossings.
France’s top auditing body, the Court of Accounts, published a document yesterday accusing Britain of not providing “usable information on the departures of small boats, and give very general, first-level information that has not been counterchecked”.
They levelled particular blame at the Joint Intelligence Unit, set up in 2020, which was causing France to struggle “to develop operation cooperation arrangements” with Britain.
Despite the ongoing criticism that French border police are refusing to intercept migrant boats once they have entered the water, the top French body accused Britain of creating “uncertain effectiveness” of illegal immigration policies.
The report was immediately slammed by MPs, with Senior Tory Tim Loughton accusing the French Government of “spamming” the British taxpayer.
He said: “They really need to do a better job of recording and detaining all those entering France illegally rather than constantly blaming others.”
This morning, Reform UK leader Richard Tice also voiced his outrage at the accusations.
He told the Express: “It is deeply rich of France – who we have subsidised to the tune of £232million to do this work – to complain that the UK authorities aren’t informing them if, where, and when the boats are leaving French beaches.
“Of course, we need to and do share information. But these details are literally on France’s own doorstep.”
“We need to demand that they step up rather than blame us.
“We pay their piper, they don’t get to call our tune!”
His comments were echoed by Tory deputy chairman Brendan Clarke-Smith, who pointed out that France should have departure information as that’s where the boats are coming from.
He said: “I find it strange if the Court of Accounts really thinks the U.K. isn’t keeping its side of the bargain when we have firstly provided more than adequate funding, and secondly been the ones who are the endpoint for illegal migrants, rather than being their original point of departure point, which is the French coast.
“They need to properly evidence their claims, as they appear on the surface to be nonsensical.”
The UK committed more than £232million to France since 2014 with the aim of preventing small boat crossings, including £54million in 2021 and £62.2million in 2022.
Mr Sunak agreed a new deal with France last year, handing them £480million over three years in yet another attempt to stop the boats.
In addition to these large sums, the UK has also spent around £87million on other border security arrangements in Northern France.
A Home Office spokesman criticised the report as “out-of-date” and “inaccurate”.
They added it: “does not accurately reflect our current working relationship, including intelligence sharing, with France”.
