Chanel death: Priti Patel not invited for meeting with France

 

 The French government has withdrawn an invitation to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to attend a meeting about the Channel boat crisis, after Boris Johnson called on France to repatriate people crossing the Channel to the UK in small boats Was.

In an escalation in the political crisis following the death of 27 people in the Channel, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmin has written to Patel, saying a meeting on Sunday would go ahead without British involvement.

It follows Johnson's letter to President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night setting out five steps to avoid a repeat of Wednesday's tragedy. The letter was publicly sent out as a tweet to the front pages of UK newspapers and French officials confirmed that Macron had not seen the letter before Johnson tweeted it.

Dormanin told Patel in a letter to Macron on Johnson's behalf that France's suggestion to withdraw people crossing the Channel was a "disappointment".

Referring to Johnson posting the letter on social media, he said: "Making it public made it worse. That's why I need to cancel my meeting in Calais on Sunday."

During his visit to Italy, Macron also said he was "shocked by the ways that are not serious".

He said: "One does not communicate from leader to leader, on such questions, by tweets and by letters which one makes public. We are not whistleblowers."

The French government's official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, added criticism of Johnson's letter to French television, calling it "mediocre in content, and wholly inappropriate with respect to form".

Atal told BFM TV that the letter "was mediocre as it does not respect all the work done by our Coast Guard, Police, Gendarmes and Lifeboat Crew ... it basically proposes a 'transfer' agreement , which is obviously not necessary to solve this problem.

 

"We are sick and tired of this dual talk and outsourcing problems."

Atal added: "What we need is that we need it to send immigration officers to France, to investigate asylum demands in Britain, on French territory."

He added that the tone of the letter "didn't in the least reflect Emmanuel Macron's exchange with Boris Johnson ... Solve it. It doesn't work that way - it works through collaboration."

France was planning to host ministers from all states along the Channel coast, including Patel, for a meeting on the refugee crisis in Calais on Sunday.

A source close to Dormain told Agence France-Presse and French media that the meeting would be with ministers from other European countries, but said Patel was no longer invited following Johnson's "unacceptable" letter.

"We consider the British prime minister's public letter to be unacceptable and contrary to the conversations we have had with our counterparts," the source said on condition of anonymity.

"Therefore, Priti Patel is no longer invited to the inter-ministerial meeting on Sunday, which is maintained in the format of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission."

The Transportation Secretary, Grant Shapps, dismissed the suggestion that Johnson's letter was sent to grab headlines and insisted it was made in good faith. "I can reassure my French friends about it and I hope they will reconsider," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

Johnson wrote to Macron asking France to immediately take back all migrants who landed in England after crossing the Channel.

He said taking people back could save thousands of lives by "radically breaking the business model of crossings, criminal gangs - if not stopped" behind smuggling.

Johnson's letter also set out areas for greater cooperation with France, proposing joint border patrolling, aerial surveillance and intelligence sharing.

The new row adds to post-Brexit tensions between Britain and France, with French fishermen on Friday leading to a blockade of Channel Ferry ports and protesting fishing rights blocking goods entering the Channel Tunnel.

In another development, the head of a UK trade union, which represents thousands of Border Force employees, has warned that if members are asked to push back people's boats, they will be given ballots to strike. could.

His words follow Patel's claims in Parliament on Thursday that the Border Force is ready and ready to turn around and send back boats that came from France.

PCS Secretary General, Mark Cervotka, said: “It is shocking that the government is suggesting the Border Force employees to return the boats, which would be clearly against international law and morally reprehensible.

"PCS is reviewing all its options, including conducting a judicial review against Priti Patel's plans and possible industrial backlash."