Priti Patel is expected to say France must intercept every illegal Channel migrant crossing

Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to say France must intercept every illegal Channel migrant crossing.

She is expected to use a crisis meeting this week to urge her French counterpart to speed up plans to intercept every single migrant before they reach the UK.

Dan O’Mahoney, the clandestine Channel threat commander, said the smugglers’ business model would only be “broken” when the French achieved their promised interception rate of 100 per cent of migrants.

“We look forward to working with the French to understand how they’re going to do that,” he said. “We’re nowhere near 100 per cent and we need to work much harder.

“We need to continue to work with the French by sharing technology, intelligence and getting the boots on the ground in the right place. But the numbers speak for themselves. We’re falling well short of 100 per cent at the moment.”

The news comes after a rapid increase in the number of illegal channel crossings. On Thursday, the French intercepted just 99 migrants – fewer than one in 10 of the 1,284 who attempted to cross the Channel in small boats.

The French authorities blamed over-stretch due to a public holiday and extra security required for an official US visit.

In a statement issued to The Telegraph at the weekend, Ms Patel said that last week’s migrant crossings showed “we must do more.” “I want to go further and faster and that’s why I will be holding talks with Monsieur Darmanin this week,” she added.

“There is no single solution to this global crisis, but I am clear that through our New Plan for Immigration and our partnership with the French, we will together break this business model and stop vulnerable people putting themselves in the hands of vile criminals, and their lives at risk.”