Portsmouth stages a vigil marking the tragic deaths of 27 migrants crossing the Channel

About 70 peace campaigners from Portsmouth’s branch of Stand Up to Racism held the service on Southsea beach on Sunday.

A minute's silence was observed and Michael Morpurgo’s latest poem, written to highlight the plight of refugees, was read.

Jon Woods of Portsmouth Trades Council was among those attending the service. He said: The appalling deaths in the Channel are completely avoidable.

‘The Tory script about criminal gangs of people smugglers is a cynical diversion, many refugees are clubbing together to buy dinghies, with no traffickers involved.’

The news came as Boris Johnson was accused of making a ‘mockery’ of British-French relations and had been told he must ‘take responsibility’ for the migrant crisis following Wednesday’s tragedy.

France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the prime minister had acted in a ‘peculiar’ fashion by opting to post on Twitter a letter to French president Emmanuel Macron outlining his proposed solutions to the small boat crossings in the Channel.

Paris was so enraged by the publication of the letter that it opted to withdraw the invitation for the UK to join weekend talks with other European ministers about how to stem the flow of people across the strait.

Counterparts from France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the European Commission met in Calais on Sunday, but neither home secretary Priti Patel nor British officials were present after being told they were not welcome.

Mr Darmanin said the British leader had looked to make a ‘mockery’ of France by, according to the minister, urging Paris to ‘take back their migrants’.

Speaking to BFMTV, Mr Darmanin said: ‘When there are serious diplomatic exchanges… and lives that are at stake… and some minutes later you see that a letter, which no-one has ever mentioned before, is published on Twitter from the British prime minister to the president of the French republic before the president of the republic has received it, it’s a bit peculiar.

‘When in this letter the English say the French should “take back their migrants, all their migrants”, it’s a mockery.’

Responding to the criticism, a spokesman for Boris Johnson said: ‘the single biggest deterrent, the single biggest step we could take together with the French would be a returns agreement, as the prime minister set out last week.

‘But we are already taking steps through our Nationality and Borders Bill to reduce the pull factors to the UK and make our asylum system firmer but fairer.’

On Saturday, December 18, Portsmouth’s Stand Up to Racism group will be staging a ‘coats for Calais’ donation drive in Palmerston Road, by the former Debenhams store, from 11am to 2pm.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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