The UK government has seemed flummoxed in recent days about how to best stop migrants and asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in inflatable dinghies – with ministers particularly concerned about the failure of the French authorities to prevent people traffickers organising journeys out of Calais.
Immigration minister Chris Philp travelled to Paris this week in an attempt to strike a deal with the French about the return of migrants. Both sides have since expressed a ‘shared commitment’ to stemming the rise in Channel crossings, and Philp has promised to unveil a ‘joint operational plan’ in the coming days, to completely cut off the route.
If all that seems too unlikely, and far too reliant on the French keeping their side of their bargain, a Tory MP has offered an alternative solution today.
Edward Leigh, the MP for Gainsborough, has proposed instead that the English should take back Calais, which was lost to France under the rule of Mary I in 1558, after 200 years of English rule.
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