Robert Jenrick and Chris Philp pelted with glass bottles and ‘threatened with machete’ as they visit migrant camps

The shadow justice secretary visited the Loon-Plage camp, between Calais and Dunkirk, when a man started throwing them at him.

Mr Jenrick called French police after he spotted dozens of migrants with life jackets preparing to cross the Channel. But he was told by a call operator that they “do not think that [the police] will come.”

 Mr Jenrick, shared video of him spotting a group of “60 or 70 migrants holding life jackets” at about 8.30pm on Sunday waiting to get on a bus.

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He and his team then followed the bus to Dunkirk, saying: “We think they’re in a little passageway behind these houses. The beach is just there.”

“At daybreak, we find the migrants have gone,” Mr Jenrick said in the clip. “We don’t know where. There’s still no sign of any police. So I ring them.”

Mr Jenrick later confirmed no police officers turned up.

The UK has signed a three-year deal with France to double the number of French officers on beaches.

He said: “We’ve given £800 million to France and we didn’t see a police officer the whole day, and now we just phoned them and it doesn’t sound like they’ll even bother to come out.”

Yesterday shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said he had a 'curved machete' pulled on him and was 'pelted with bottles' whilst on a visit to Dunkirk's new 'Jungle camp.

He also posted video footage of a trip to 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.

“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.”

On Monday this week alone there were 474 Channel arrivals, pushing the total past 50,000 since Labour came to power.

The number of migrants crossing the English Channel per boat has been on a steady upward trend since data was first recorded in 2018, when the average for the year was seven.

It then rose to an average of 11 per boat in 2019, 13 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 41 in 2022, 49 in 2023 and 53 in 2024.

The average for 2025 is currently running at 59 people per boat.

Speaking on the Isle of Wight, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Labour’s plan to smash the gangs was just a slogan. Things are so much worse since Labour came into office, they have no plans.

"Their one in, one out scheme isn’t going to work, and what we’re seeing is a lot of local communities having to pay the price and bear the brunt of the Government’s incompetence.”

Asked if the Conservatives could reduce the number of crossings from five figures to zero, Mrs Badenoch replied that “it wouldn’t happen straight away, but it would happen quickly”.

Mr Philp said: “Labour has surrendered our borders, and the consequences are being felt in our communities, from rising crime to shocking cases of rape and sexual assault by recent arrivals.”