France must “do more” to end the Channel migrant crisis and snare people smugglers, Keir Starmer has declared.

The Prime Minister, speaking ahead of meeting Emmanuel Macron at the G7, said he wants “more co-operation” on small boats amid a record-breaking year of arrivals.

At least 16,317 migrants have successfully crossed the Channel this year, leading to fears 50,000 asylum seekers will arrive this year.

But France has intercepted just 10,082 migrants this year, meaning they have intercepted only 38% of crossings – the lowest percentage in years.

Paris is drawing up plans to intercept dinghies in the water this Summer and “trialled” tactics on Friday, with officers surging into the water to block people reaching a so-called taxi boat.

French police gather on a beach (Image: Getty)

Keir Starmer discussed migration with Giorgia Meloni (Image: Getty)

And the situation in France is becoming more dangerous “by the day”, critics have warned.

Two migrants have been shot dead in a camp near Dunkirk over the weekend. There have also been reports of hammer attacks.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “For several consecutive days there have been shootings and hammer attacks at migrant camps in northern France.

“Two dead and several wounded. The gangs are getting more dangerous by the day.”

Home Office figures revealed 919 people crossed in 14 boats on Friday, while 134 arrived on Saturday.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the response from French border authorities, Sir Keir said: “One of the things we’ve worked hard at is improving the relations with the French in relation to the work we both need to do to stop these boat crossings, which I’m determined we will absolutely bear down on.

“Nobody should be making that journey.

“As a result of that we are seeing a much greater co-operation in northern France – I want to see more co-operation in northern France, and it’s an issue that I have raised and will raise again with President Macron.

“We have good relations between the Home Secretary and the interior minister now that we’re working on jointly. It’s one of the issues I’ll be discussing – not just with Macron, actually, but discussing it with Giorgia Meloni, Freidrich Merz, and others.”

Downing Street said the Prime Minister had “lengthy discussions” about migration with his Italian counterpart during his first bilateral meeting at the summit in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday.

“The Prime Minister raised the UK’s world-leading work on people smuggling sanctions, adding that he looked forward to working with other European countries on this approach,” Number 10 said.

Sir Keir’s Government has pledged to “smash the gangs” behind people-smuggling operations but has so far struggled to bring down crossings in the Channel, which is one of the busiest and most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week committed £200 million to overhauling the asylum system and said the Government will end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament.

The “reset” deal struck between the UK and EU in May this year included commitments to co-operate more on migration, including greater intelligence-sharing.

It did not include an EU-wide returns agreement, which the Prime Minister said in 2023 he would seek to secure.

Sir Keir’s agenda for the G7 summit has not been confirmed but he is expected to hold talks with Mr Macron as well as US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Mr Merz over the course of the conference.