French fury at Boris Johnson’s ‘double-speak’ in Channel migrant crisis

Earlier the French interior ministry announced it was withdrawing an invitation to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to attend a meeting in Calais on Sunday of ministers from key European countries to discuss the crisis

French police look out over a beach near Wimereux in France (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

France reacted with fury after Boris Johnson publicly called on Paris to take back people who survive the Channel crossing to Britain, as the first victim of the mass casualty was named as a young Kurdish woman from northern Iraq.

A French government spokesman accused the British Prime Minister of “double-speak” as the fallout after a dinghy sank on Wednesday, with the loss of 27 lives, erupted into a full-scale diplomatic row.