French warship fires during BBC interview in English Channel, raising alarm over migrant crossings
A French Navy patrol boat fired a burst of shots in the English Channel during a BBC interview with Conservative MP Chris Philp, jolting the
A French Navy patrol boat fired a burst of shots in the English Channel during a BBC interview with Conservative MP Chris Philp, jolting the small fishing boat hosting the exchange and setting off a dispute over what the crew was doing just off France’s coast.
The incident unfolded at about 09:15 BST, when BBC journalist Michael Keohan was speaking with Philp about small boat crossings. A French warship passed nearby as the interview was underway, roughly three miles from the French shoreline. Keohan said he counted 17 shots. He said there were no warnings for the boat.
Philp, the UK shadow home secretary, said the episode looked like an attempt to intimidate those on board and stop coverage of migrant crossings. “It looked and sounded exactly like deliberate intimidation,” he said. The fishing boat’s captain, Matt Coker, said he had “never seen anything like it before.”
French officials call it training
The French authorities gave a different account, saying the firing was part of a training exercise and had nothing to do with the British vessel nearby. They said the boat, identified as PSP Flamant, was not on an operation to monitor migrant boats. French officials also said the British vessel was out of range of fire.
That explanation did little to calm the immediate fallout. Philp dismissed it as “not credible” and said there were no warnings in place about live-firing drills. The sharp disagreement leaves two versions of the same brief but startling moment: a routine exercise, or a show of force aimed at a media crew covering migration in one of Europe’s most sensitive waterways.
The English Channel has become a flashpoint for crossings by small boats, with Britain and France under pressure to tighten patrols and curb departures. The waters involved in this episode sit close to the French coast, where vessels from both countries routinely operate and where misunderstandings can quickly become political.
A tense backdrop on a busy waterway
The timing made the scene especially charged. Philp was being questioned about a politically fraught issue when the shots rang out nearby. The interview was happening from a fishing boat, not a military vessel, which made the sound of gunfire all the more stark for those on board.
Keohan’s account of 17 shots, paired with the captain’s reaction, suggests the crew experienced the event as sudden and unsettling. The French side insists there was no link to the BBC boat. Philp says the lack of warning makes that hard to accept.
For now, the episode stands as a small but vivid illustration of the tension around Channel crossings. A patrol boat. A live interview. Gunfire heard at close range. And two governments left with competing explanations. Philp put his objection bluntly: “It looked and sounded exactly like deliberate intimidation.”
