Chris Philp has had a rather eventful morning. While filming an interview about small boats aboard a fishing vessel in the Channel, the Shadow Home Secretary watched as a French warship fired a volley of shots just 300 metres away.
A French naval officer standing at the stern of the vessel, a couple of miles off Boulogne-sur-Mer, fired 17 rounds from a handgun. The shots were aimed away from Philp – but he believes the display was intended to intimidate him into abandoning his coverage of dinghy crossings.
Philp said: ‘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. There was no notice or training exercise in place. Felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.’
The fishing boat’s captain, Matt Coker, also suggested the timing was rather suspicious. He said: ‘It’s a bit strange that as they approached us there wasn’t fire or anything and then as they went past, afterwards there wasn’t fire or anything. They only seemed to be firing the weapons when they were right alongside us. So I find that a bit strange because we’ve got all this open sea out here. So it sounds like it might have been an effort to intimidate us. It could well have been, it might have just been a little bit of a warning shot. Maybe just to show a force or something.’
If only the French put as much effort into stopping small boats as they apparently do into stopping Chris Philp…
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