Priti’s migrant row f ightback

Her allies say Home Secretary has been repeatedly let down by other Ministers – and claim Macron is so determined to defy Britain on border crisis that he would even ‘say no to a pot of gold’

PRITI Patel last night launched a defence of her handling of the migrant crisis as she faced pressure from Ministers and MPs.

It came amid growing Cabinet concern over the Home Secretary’s seeming inability to resolve the Channel migrant crisis.

However, Ms Patel’s allies hit back last night, defending her record and accusing the French of refusing to cooperate.

Twenty-seven migrants, including three children and seven women, died on Wednesday when their dinghy sank off Calais.

Ms Patel was due to meet President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the crisis, but the French government cancelled the meeting in a fit of pique after receiving an open letter from Boris Johnson, posted on Twitter, which Mr Macron claimed breached protocol.

In a further escalation of rhetoric, Michel Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, who is running in France’s presidential election, urged France to tear up its migrant treaty with the UK.

The Prime Minister is understood to have privately rebuked Ms Patel for failing to ‘get a grip’ on the issue, and was joined in his criticisms by other Ministers at a meeting in the wake of the drowning tragedy.

A source said: ‘She has had two years to sort this out, but the situation is worse than ever. She is happy to bask in the limelight when things are going well, but seems to go missing when it goes wrong.’

However, allies of Ms Patel hit back by blaming the French – and her ministerial colleagues.

A Home Office source said: ‘This letter debacle shows publicly what Priti has been battling against in private for the last two years. We have made all the offers the Prime Minister made to the French in his letter before.

‘We could offer them a pot of unlimited gold and a magic wand to make this all stop and they would still find a reason to say no.

‘People say she should get a grip, and now they can all see for themselves what she’s up against. Departments across Whitehall have sat on their hands for two years and it’s only now they are starting to even look at what our asks of them are. ‘What would anyone else have done differently? For two years people have been trying to water down what we have suggested.’ Ms Patel is understood to be particularly angry about the lack of progress made by the Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, while he was in the role of Foreign Secretary. On Friday,

Mr Macron criticised Mr Johnson for breaking protocol by publicly posting his letter, which was addressed ‘Dear Emmanuel’.

The French President, who is gearing up for an election next year, said he would ‘work seriously to settle serious issues with serious people’, and ‘move forward efficiently with the British, if they decide to get serious’.

But the Prime Minister’s spokesman defended publishing the letter and said: ‘The public understandably want to know what we are doing to prevent this from happening again.’

Meanwhile, the crisis has also divided the Opposition. Last night, some Labour MPs privately complained that the party was once again alienating its ‘patriotic’ working-class voters by appearing to side with the French President in the diplomatic spat over Mr Johnson’s letter.

They pointed to how Shadow Home Secretary Nick ThomasSymonds

had described the French decision to cancel Ms Patel’s invitation to talks as ‘a humiliation’ for Mr Johnson and his Home Secretary.

The former Labour Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who is now chief executive of the International Rescue Mission, said that Mr Johnson’s letter to the French President was ‘unwise’.

One senior Labour MP said last night: ‘The party’s making a mistake here – the working-class vote will support Boris on this.’