France won't scrap UK border controls in Calais but Britain must pay more, says French interior minister

Emmanuel Macron will not scrap UK border controls on French soil, according to the French interior minister, but Britain should pay more towards handling illegal migrants seeking to cross the Channel.

Mr Macron, the newly-elected French President, vowed during his election campaign to renegotiate the Le Touquet agreement which enables British border officials to carry out checks in France.

Signed at a summit between President Chirac and Tony Blair in 2003, it provided for France and Britain to erect juxtaposed border controls in Channel ports. This effectively moved the French frontier to Kent and the UK frontier to Calais.

Along with others, Mr Macron insisted that France can no longer be Britain's "coast guard" to do its dirty work . The deal means that illegal immigrants found in France are barred from Britain before they reach it.

In May, Theresa May appeared to concede that the agreement will have to be looked at again as she vowed to defend the border controls, arguing that they benefit France as much as the UK.

On Wednesday, Gérard Collomb, Mr Macron's interior minister, appeared to rule out scrapping UK border controls on French soil.

"To return the border to England would be complex," he told Le Figaro. "It would block the functioning of the tunnel."

"However, we will have to find more favourable conditions regarding responsibility for a certain number of costs in France," he added. 

Britain supplies about €80 million of annual funding for security and other costs, and has financed tighter security at Calais' Eurotunnel site and the port.

"We need extra security measures in Calais, for the port, the railways, around the motorways," said Mr Collomb.

He was speaking the day after a van driver died in a fireball in a crash caused by migrants placing tree trunks on a Calais motorway to halt lorries.

The new measures would notably be to "halt incidents on the approach road (to the port) and to ward off violations that the state prefect regularly informs us of," said the minister.

During the EU referendum campaign Mr Macron vowed to tear up the Le Touquet agreement if the UK voted for Brexit. "The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais,” he said.

He adopted a more conciliatory note during a recent visit to London but insisted that he still wants to renegotiate the agreement. 

"I want to put the Le Touquet border deal back on the table,” he said. “It must be renegotiated, especially the parts that deal with the fate of isolated child migrants.”

Should the deal be scrapped, ferry companies risk being made responsible for stopping illegal migrants from crossing the Channel. 

Those which fail to do so will be fined £2,000 for each illegal immigrant found stowed away under existing legislation.

Last month, Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, said that scrapping British border controls on French soil could see a return of the notorious Sangatte refugee camp.

He said: "We forget Sangatte was a nightmare for the Labour Government until they did a deal. 

"This agreement makes it possible for them to disperse the migrants. It's all bluster and puff - it [Le Touquet] suited them, and it suited us."

Mr Collomb said he would soon visit Calais, where the notorious "Jungle" camp was razed last year and thousands of migrants re-located around France. Hundreds have now returned.

The interior minister ruled out building a new migrant camp, saying: "The situation would be even more unacceptable."

"I don't want to see 2,000 to 3,000 people there again. To return to the previous situation would be the failure of a system."