Footage of French police standing by while migrants head to Britain proves Keir Starmer's plan to stop small boats won't work

Stark flaws in Labour's proposals to tackle the small boats crisis were exposed yesterday as French police stood by while migrants headed for Britain.

The Daily Mail observed how officers from the French Police Nationale did nothing to prevent migrants catching a 'taxi boat' to Dover.

The troubling scenes on Gravelines beach, near Calais, highlighted shortcomings in Sir Keir Starmer's proposals to seek closer co-operation with France and other European countries.

Labour has pledged to tackle the migrant crisis by pursuing 'new agreements with France and other countries on returns and family reunion' and 'deeper security co-operation with Europe'.

It has also proposed creating a new 'Border Security Command' – which Tory ministers say already exists.

However, Labour's suggestion of a new returns agreement is highly unlikely to come to fruition. Home Office insiders have told the Mail that similar requests have been repeatedly rejected by the French government.

Instead, members of the Tory Right have called for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights or alter the UK's relationship with the Strasbourg court to remove hurdles on returning illegal migrants to their home countries.

Meanwhile, the Rwanda asylum scheme is set to take off if the Conservatives win on July 4. 

But Sir Keir said he will cancel the scheme 'straight away' if Labour wins. 

Huge sums handed to Emmanuel Macron's administration have seen variable success in reducing crossings.

Nearly £800million in UK taxpayers' money has been handed over or pledged since 2014.

Channel arrivals fell by a third last year, but so far this year, arrivals are up 41 per cent on the same period in 2023, and yesterday's scenes showed how previous deals with France are failing to stem the tide of Channel crossings.

On Gravelines beach at 9.15am were a dozen migrants – young men – up to their knees in the sea. Police were quickly on the scene, yet they let the migrants wait for more than half an hour in shallow waters as they waited their 'taxi boat'.

Officers are barred from intercepting people or boats even in ankle-deep water. A police chief at the scene told us: 'The boat was already in the water – and so were migrants. So we couldn't touch them. 

'When we used to find them with their boats in the dunes, it was much easier, we just slashed the dinghies with knives.'

Up to 18 officers stood between a further 20 or so migrants on the beach – including women, a young girl and a toddler in arms – and those in the water. 

Officers were able to stop the women and children, but the rest simply ran into the waves and stood laughing and shouting as they awaited their 'taxi', which arrived at 9.45am.

Those already on the dinghy hauled the waiting passengers, only half in life-jackets, on board, then they set sail for Dover. 

But after 15 minutes they were back. Half a dozen passengers, uneasy about a hissing puncture, were casually returned to shore before the rest set off again.

A Police Nationale commander who would not give her name said: 'Our senior officers have told us, "Do not go in the water, even if they're only in up to their ankles". 

'It's because we could make it dangerous for the migrants and we have to safeguard human life. We cannot arrest them, they have committed no crime.'

Those who remained on the leaking taxi-boat were last night on British soil – with a photographer in Dover catching the migrants being brought ashore after they were picked up by a UK rescue vessel.

A Labour spokesman said: 'For too long, criminal gangs have been putting lives at risk and making millions in profit. Tory gimmicks have not solved this. Labour's Border Security Command will use tough new counter-terror powers.'