Fury as top politician in Calais says police should LET migrants cross Channel in new row

France should stand by and let migrants freely cross the Channel to "scare" Labour into taking action, an ally of the French interior minister claimed.

Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, claimed Paris is "guarding the border" for Britain.

And he said the UK is responsible for the small boats crisis alongside the people smugglers.

Despite Britain agreeing to hand over more than £660m to stop migrants leaving their shores, Mr Bertrand claimed "we're practically forced to beg them to give us part of the cheque they owe us".

In fresh incendiary comments, the French politician declared: "We should tell the Border Force, 'This week, stay at home, we don't want to see you and we're going to let everyone through.

"Then you'll see what happens: the English will get scared, and in two days they'll sit down at the table with proposals to change things. Right now, we're practically forced to beg them to give us part of the cheque they owe us simply because we're guarding the border for them. That's enough.

"Let the migrants through. My proposal isn't very clever. But it's the only one that can change things."

More than 35,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, despite a one-in-one-out returns deal being agreed between London and Paris.

And more than 20 people have died attempting to reach the UK in a small boat.

But Mr Bertrand bizarrely claimed France was indifferent to the fact that "people are dying every week", adding: "Very clearly, we know who is primarily responsible: the smugglers, the criminals who exploit these networks.

"The second party responsible is the British. Because there wouldn't be these deaths, there wouldn't be hundreds of people trying to cross every week, if they didn't have jobs in Britain."

Mr Bertrand said he held Britain, along with people-smugglers, responsible for deaths in the Channel because of the UK's "hypocrisy" over its stance on the black market economy.

He said: "The British say, 'now we're going to set up a legal immigration channel. That means we're going to accept them legally and then send them back to France'."

Mr Bertrand, who has backed Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau's potential Presidential bid in 2027, also slammed Keir Starmer's one-in, one-out deal.

He said: "Of course, it can't work. We'll just end up having two channels, one illegal and one legal."

French police used pepper spray to stop migrants from reaching a small boat before it set off towards the UK on Friday morning.

Around 100 men and women gathered on Gravelines beach in northern France hoping to cross the English Channel.

As they began to head for a dinghy in the water, some collided with French police who used a spray to try and stop them.

At least 70 people made it to the boat and were pictured taking off across the channel towards Dover.