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WATCH: Alex Armstrong left furious at 'complete political theatre' after footage of French police slashing migrant boats
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Jul 5, 2025
Alex Armstrong has launched a scathing attack on footage showing French police slashing a migrant boat, dismissing the intervention as "complete political theatre".The incident that sparked Armstrong's criticism occurred early Friday morning on a beach south of Boulogne.French police officers waded into shallow waters and used knives to slash an inflatable boat packed with men, women and children.The vessel was wallowing dangerously in the waves when officers intervened. All passengers managed to clamber to safety as the boat collapsed and rapidly deflated.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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A bit better. Alex, this is one of your specialist subjects
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What do you make of the fact the French have started slashing the boats? I just, I mean, I just don't buy it
0:06
Do any of you really buy it that they're going to do this every day? It's theatre, isn't it? It's complete political theatre
0:12
I think you've absolutely nailed it, Patrick. Emmanuel Macron's coming over. He doesn't want to protest
0:16
He probably wants to come over all glorified. Look, we're stopping the boats now. Thanks for all that money you gave us years ago
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We're actually doing the job you're paying us to do. I think it's a load of nonsense, Pat. I really do. Really do
0:27
Are you as cynical as I am, Christo? I am cynical because I always thought that they hid behind the law
0:32
that once a boat is in the water, they're not allowed to actually punctuate
0:37
Well, they say they've changed it now. So now they can do that, apparently
0:41
They've changed the law. I don't believe it. So now we've got to hold them to account
0:46
We've seen them what they can do because I think most ordinary people looking at those police officers on the beach
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watching those migrant boats go off right in front of them, and we know as a country we're paying them millions of pounds
0:57
Most of us were just like, our jaws were on the floor. You're literally like, what? Common sense completely gone out of the window
1:03
So I think, actually, I know we want to be cynical and I know we might think it's about Macron
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and I'm sure that's part of it, but I think we should applaud it. This is the first time they've actually done something
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which all of us can look at and go, yes, common sense. People in a boat, get a knife out, slash it
1:18
I mean, what was so difficult all these years? Hundreds of boats that have crossed to the jungle
1:24
We shouldn't glorify the fact they've done their job once. If I did my job once, I would have been sacked a long time ago
1:30
And that's the reality. We shouldn't go, well done, France, you did your job. That's why I'm not giving it any credence
1:36
It's nonsense. It's like we've been given a little crumb. It's like they've given us a little crumb. Well done, Britain
1:40
That's 50 people, 20,000 more coming. Yeah, because the other thing is obviously going to be the follow-up
1:46
So when I was out there in Calais, what really stood out to me was there was a big great big migrant camp and it next to the sea And the French hadn even bothered to put fence up So there no fence between that camp and where they walk across the field to get on the beach to get the boats to come to Britain And I would have
2:01
thought that maybe the least they could do was put a fence up. And they didn't do that. So I am very
2:05
sceptical about this. And the other thing is, what do they do once they've got them off the boat? Do they say, alright, go and have another
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go tomorrow? Is that what it is? They say, oh, you can just go back in, you know, rest up
2:13
better luck next time, chaps. Let's be honest, it is mostly chaps, isn't it? But Barry, what do you make of it
2:17
Because the argument would be that this is in some way of victory for Rebecca Cooper. He's got
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the French to change that law and now they've seen them doing something. Well, it's not a victory
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until it is a repeated habitual way of dealing with this. So
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I understand why you're sceptical. I think I want to be sceptical as well. You know
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we didn't call them for 200 years the perfidious French for nothing. That's a good point
2:43
You know, but actually I think let's see what happens. They have changed the law
2:49
Well, Emily's right. And if we say to Macron when he comes over
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oh, well, you've only done it once, that's not going to help the situation
2:58
So I think what we've got to say is, look, thanks for doing it, but keep on doing it
3:03
Guys, have we got footage of that? I think it's somewhere in there, isn't it? I don't know if we can maybe bring up the footage
3:06
of the French actually doing it, because it was quite telling, really, I thought. They actually decided to go and slash the bow
3:12
and I think we might be able to show that in a second. But, you know, to Armand's point here
3:16
this has cost us a huge amount of money. Do we honestly think that the French are going to continue to do this
3:21
I'm not sure. They are under pressure. Can I just say that there was a charity there, Project Play
3:28
which has basically said it's dangerous to pierce the boats because there might be children in the boats
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They're not worried the children are in the boats when they're going across the saddle. What is it? They're worried about them being cleaners
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No, but also a child was stamped to death as the boat went into the water
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by other young male migrants. I just want to briefly say there's only one way to stop the boats
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and that is to start deportations in this country once we start supporting people that won't keep coming
3:51
We need to grow up, we need to get some ball
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