Refugees living in the ”Jungle” refugee camp in Calais could end up living in similar squalor in south-east England if Britain leaves the EU, No 10 will suggest.
David Cameron is reportedly set to argue that Brexit would lead France to scrap the 2003 Le Touquet treaty that allows UK officials to conduct border checks for stowaways on lorries or trains on the French side of the Channel.
“The French would love to pull out of the arrangement,” an unnamed source told the Telegraph. “We will be telling people, look, if we leave the EU, the Jungle camp in Calais will move to Folkestone. That is not something people want.”
The Le Touquet treaty is an inter-governmental agreement between France and the UK, not involving the EU. The French government has long complained that the British do not provide enough funding or resources to keep the measures in place.
In October, France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said he would not get involved in the referendum campaign but warned that Britain should expect to face “countermeasures” if it pulled out of the EU.
National security is set to be a key theme of Cameron’s campaign to remain in the EU in the coming weeks. The prime minister is widely expected to formally set the date for the referendum later this month.
“These are dangerous times and we will make the argument that Britain is much safer as part of the European Union,” the source said. “There is a compelling case to be made.”
Eurosceptics reacted angrily to the report. The Vote Leave campaign chief, Matthew Elliott, called it “blatant scaremongering from No 10 that has no grounding in reality”.
He said: “UK border controls are in France because of a bilateral treaty, not because of our EU membership, and a result of the camps in Calais, not the cause of them. Clearly, No 10 is in a blind panic over the failing renegotiation.”
The London mayor, Boris Johnson, who has been courted by both campaigns, has said he will “wait until you see the whites of their eyes” before making his decision on whether to vote in or out.
“This is the moment to stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, squint down the barrel and only when you see the whites of their eyes should you finally let fly and decide whether to stay or leave the EU; because the arguments are as finely balanced as they have ever been,” he wrote in his column in the Telegraph.
