Boris Johnson news - live: Employment drops by 220,000 within three months as Tory MPs claim migrants crossing Channel are 'invading' UK

UK employment has fallen at the fastest rate in more than a decade as 220,000 jobs were lost between April and June, the largest quarterly fall since the financial crisis.

A total of 730,000 people have been taken off company payrolls since the coronavirus pandemic triggered a national lockdown in March, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.

The true state of employment in Britain may be hidden by the government’s furlough scheme, as many fear they will not have jobs to come back to when the scheme winds down in October and demand for workers “remains depressed”.

Elsewhere, there is growing pressure on the government to deal with the uptick of migrants making the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats. Immigration minister Chris Philp is to hold talks with his French counterparts in Paris to discuss the issue.

A group of 25 Tory MP backbenchers were condemned by a former child refugee for saying migrants coming to the UK via the Channel were "invading" the country, with one claiming they could simply "paddle in".

At least 597 migrants arrived on the UK’s shores between Thursday and Sunday. In total, more than 4,000 migrants have made the treacherous journey so far this year.

Prime minister Boris Johnson condemned the actions of “cruel and criminal gangs” who carry out the Channel crossings, adding the journey is “a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels”.