Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has revealed he had a curved machete brandished at him and was pelted with glass bottles during a fact-finding visit to a migrant camp outside Dunkirk, in what he described as a “very frightening encounter” that forced his team to flee for their safety.
The Conservative MP was attempting to speak with migrants at the camp when one individual suddenly pulled out what Philp described as a “curved machete” and began threatening the group. As the five-person team hastily retreated, they were bombarded with glass bottles, with more projectiles thrown at their vehicle as they drove away.
Speaking to GB News just minutes after escaping the camp, a visibly shaken Philp recounted: “I was talking to migrants there literally about ten or 15 minutes ago. First of all, as I was talking to some migrants, another one pulled out a curved machete and started brandishing it, at which point we left pretty quickly.”
The Shadow Home Secretary revealed there were no French police visible in the camp during the incident, though he had brought his own security team. “Everyone got out safely,” he confirmed, describing it as a “pretty nerve-wracking experience” given they were vastly outnumbered by what he estimated to be “probably one or two thousand” migrants in the camp.
Philp had been visiting camps in the Calais region as part of his investigation into the ongoing Channel migrant crisis, following fellow Shadow Cabinet member Robert Jenrick’s recent trip to the area. He posted on social media platform X: “Just had a knife pulled on us in the new Jungle camp by Dunkirk and then pelted with bottles while trying to speak to migrants. Will post update later.”
The incident occurred on the same day that Philp had announced his trip to France, stating he wanted to “find out more about what’s happening on the ground with the illegal migration crisis.” His visit coincided with GB News revealing that 50,000 people have illegally crossed the Channel since Labour won the general election in July 2024.
During his brief interactions before the threatening incident, Philp said he had observed migrants wearing life jackets and had pointed out to one man that crossing the Channel was illegal. The man’s response, according to Philp, was simply: “I don’t care.”
They’ve heard about the hotels that the Government are going to put them in,” Philp told Britain’s News Channel shortly after the attack. “They talked about the fact it’s easy to work in the UK. You know, presumably that’s a reference to the Deliveroo scandal.
The Shadow Home Secretary noted that the camp appeared to contain primarily Eritrean and Afghan nationals, and emphasised that “these people could easily claim asylum in France if they wanted to. But they’re choosing to illegally make these crossings instead.”
Philp used the incident to highlight his concerns about border security, stating: “I’m not sure people who pull knives, these people are on their way to the UK in the dinghies. And we were certainly pretty seriously threatened just a few minutes ago.”
The attack has raised serious questions about safety conditions in the migrant camps around Calais and Dunkirk, where thousands of people gather hoping to cross the Channel to Britain. The camps, often referred to as “jungles,” have been a persistent issue for French authorities, with cycles of clearances and re-establishments over many years.
Tom Harwood, a GB News presenter who interviewed Philp after the incident, questioned why the Shadow Home Secretary had visited the camp. Philp defended his decision, explaining: “The reason I went there is because I wanted to find out what was going on on the ground. I wanted to talk to people directly and find out why they’re choosing to leave a safe country, France, to come to the UK even though it’s illegal.”
The incident comes amid heightened political tensions over immigration policy, with Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch recently dismissing Labour’s promise to “smash the criminal boat gangs” as “just a slogan.” The Government has launched a new “one in, one out” pilot scheme with France, allowing the UK to return some Channel arrivals in exchange for asylum seekers with British family ties.
Philp has been a vocal critic of this arrangement, describing it as “completely unworkable” and warning it would be “ruthlessly exploited by human rights lawyers.” Just last week, he conducted observations from a boat in the Channel, claiming to have witnessed French authorities “shepherding” migrant boats towards British waters.
The violent confrontation at the Dunkirk camp underscores the dangerous and volatile nature of the situation in northern France, where desperate migrants gather in makeshift camps whilst attempting to reach Britain. With no immediate solution in sight and numbers continuing to rise, incidents like this highlight the human cost and security challenges of the ongoing crisis.
A Home Office spokesperson declined to comment on the specific incident but reiterated that the Government remains committed to ending dangerous small boat crossings and disrupting the criminal gangs facilitating them.
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