Migrants are making the journey across the English Channel as Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are in crunch talks over a deal to curb the migrant crossings. According to the HM coastguard, Border Force vessels were sent to respond to multiple boats on Thursday morning.

A spokesman said: “HM Coastguard has been coordinating a response to multiple incidents involving small boats in the Channel this morning, 10 July. UK Border Force vessels have been sent as part of this response.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted on X that he was also in the Channel and saw 78 migrants, including four women and children. Speaking to GB News from a boat in the Channel, he said: “This is a classic day in the English Channel over the last five years when the weather’s calm, or a red day, as they call it. You’ve got a migrant boat and we’ve seen it through the binoculars. There are about 70 people on board, being escorted all the way over by the French Navy and behind us, we have Border Force sitting on the 12-mile line, waiting for the handover.”

It comes as the Prime Minister and French president said a “new deterrent” was needed to stop small boats crossing the English Channel. More than 21,000 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year, which is a record for this point in the year since data collection began in 2018.

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