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

PARIS (Reuters) -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.