A French warship opened fire with 17 live rounds near a British MP in the English Channel, in what the shadow home secretary described as “deliberate intimidation”.
Chris Philp was on a boat monitoring small boat crossings when the French vessel approached “close” and fired the shots behind him, he said. The MP revealed he was being interviewed by the BBC at the time – and claimed the French navy gave no warning or notice that they were conducting live-fire training.
“French warship fired 17 rounds near shadow home secretary Chris Philp while he monitored Channel crossings.”
“On the channel today monitoring illegal migrant crossings … as I was being interviewed by the BBC just now a French warship approached close and fired 17 live rounds behind us,” Philp wrote in a social media post. “There was no notice or training exercise in place. Felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.”
French authorities later insisted the shots were part of a routine training exercise. Philp dismissed that explanation as “not credible”.
“The French are now claiming that the shots were a training exercise,” he said. “There were no warnings in place about live firing training exercises. They fired the live rounds at the closest point of approach to us – and didn’t fire anything that we saw before or after. It looked and sounded exactly like deliberate intimidation.”
The incident threatens to inflame tensions between the UK and France over Channel migration, just as both sides struggle to curb small boat crossings. Philp, a vocal critic of illegal migration, had been on the water to document the crossings firsthand. The French government has not commented beyond the training-exercise explanation, which the Conservative MP has now publicly rejected.
The French navy’s decision to fire live rounds near a British politician – whether warning shots or a drill gone wrong – is likely to trigger a formal diplomatic protest. Philp has not said whether he has raised the matter with the Foreign Office.