The Conservative leader, a supporter of the leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, also said it was time for ‘people to stop blaming Brexit’.

Record illegal migrant crossings across the English Channel this year showed Brexit had failed to deliver on a British promise of tighter border controls, said French President Emmanuel Macron, adding that British people had been 'sold a lie.

The Government is making “slow progress” on tackling the migrant small boat Channel crossings crisis, a Cabinet minister admitted. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said the Government had stopped 12,000 crossings this year and had also deported 30,000 people.