Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has said he had a ‘curved machete’ pulled on him and was ‘pelted with bottles’ whilst on a visit to Dunkirk’s new ‘Jungle camp’.
The Conservative MP began a trip to investigate illegal migration last night, travelling to northern France to visit a migrant camp near Dunkirk.
In updates posted to X, Philp said: ‘Exiting the jungle 2 near Dunkirk where we had a machete pulled on us. Then got pelted with glass bottles.’
The MP for Croydon South spoke to police, locals and aid workers, noting a lack of French police on the beaches where illegal migrant boat launches are common.
The MP posted this morning: ‘5am and I’m walking along the beach which has seen many illegal migrant boat launches – including yesterday.
‘I can’t see any French police here either – why aren’t they patrolling this launching point? It’s negligent.’
Philps’ encounter comes as Home Offices figures yesterday showed that over 50,000 migrants had arrived in the UK alone since Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s landslide victory.
Speaking to GB News shortly after the incident, Philps said: ‘I was talking to migrants there literally about ten or 15 minutes ago.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp began a trip to investigate illegal migration last night, travelling to northern France to visit a migrant camp near Dunkirk
Home Offices figures yesterday showed that over 50,000 migrants had arrived in the UK alone since Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s landslide victory
Chris posted video updates to X of his visit, recorded on the beaches in France
‘First of all, as I was talking to some migrants, another one pulled out a curved machete and started brandishing it, at which point we left pretty quickly.
‘And then as we were leaving, we got pelted with glass bottles.
‘And as we drove off other bottles got thrown at the car.’
The so-called ‘Dunkirk ‘Jungle’ camp’ or ‘Jungle 2’ is a French refugee camp that is thought to have replaced, by size, the ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais which was notorious before it was closed in 2016.
This morning, a record 107 migrants – the largest number of people aboard one inflatable – reached Britain in just one dinghy.
Images from the port of Dover this morning showed human traffickers have begun to deploy a new, longer type of inflatable.
The dinghy – which can barely be described as a ‘small boat’ – was recovered in the Channel and taken to Dover, where it was being examined by Border Force and law enforcement, GB News reported.
In videos posted to his social media, the Tory MP came across small boats in the channel
Chris reported being ‘pelted with bottles’ and having a ‘machete pulled’ on him while speaking to migrants at one camp
Chris also spoke to local police, fishermen, and migrants themselves
In one clip posted to X, Chris spoke to local fisherman on the quayside near Gravelines beach, who claimed to have seen many illegal migrant embarkations
The so-called ‘Dunkirk ‘Jungle’ camp’ or ‘Jungle 2’ is a French refugee camp that is thought to have replaced, by size, the ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais which was notorious before it was closed in 2016
The MP for Croydon South spoke to police, locals and aid workers, noting a lack of French police on the beaches where illegal migrant boat launches are common
Philp said in one X update: ‘Exiting the jungle 2 near Dunkirk where we had a machete pulled on us. Then got pelted with glass bottles’
The appearance of the larger type of dinghy further undermines Labour’s decision to concentrate on law enforcement responses to ‘smash the gangs’.
Keir Starmer scrapped the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda asylum scheme as one of his first acts in office, just as it was finally ready to get off the ground.
The Rwanda scheme was designed to make crossing the Channel pointless, because migrants would be sent to Rwanda to claim asylum there instead of here.
On Monday alone there were 474 Channel arrivals, pushing the total past 50,000 since Labour came to power.
