Britain pays France to stop migrants. The evidence shows it is failing - The Telegraph

But they have now been escalated to ministers, according to a French interior ministry source, who told Le Monde: “The negotiations have failed. Everything has gone up to the ministerial level.”

It is understood that British ministers and officials are frustrated at the fall in migrants being intercepted by the French.

French officers continue to be filmed standing on the beaches apparently powerless to stop the smugglers’ “taxi” boats picking up migrants.

Failure to intercept boats at sea

Mr Hewitt has publicly expressed his frustration at the apparent failure of the French to implement a promised policy of intercepting boats at sea.

This had previously been deemed too dangerous and a potential breach of maritime law, which dictates that seafarers must not put lives at risk at sea.

In a leaked private letter to Mr Macron last November, Sir Keir Starmer warned that there was “no effective deterrent in the Channel” without the tactic.

But there have been just three interceptions at sea since Mr Macron announced last July that France would modify its maritime policy to allow officers to board small boats.

Last week, a French minister expressed concern over British demands. Xavier Ducept, the French junior minister for the sea, told a French parliamentary commission of inquiry that the British “want to show their public that the funds... are being used effectively”.