French Warship Fires LIVE Rounds Near Shadow Home Secretary

What I've seen this morning is a shockingly egregious act by a French warship, which is said to have fired 17 live rounds just behind a vessel carrying our Home Secretary Chris Philp, who is in the channel today monitoring the illegal migrant crossings.He said that there was no notice or training exercise in place, and that it felt like warning shots or an attempted intimidation.Take a look at this.

There's been nothing announced on the VHF from what we've heard this morning.We've been out since six o 'clock.So it sounds like it might have been an effort to intimidate us.It could well have been.It might have just been a little bit of a warning shot and maybe just a bit of show of force or something.

All right, well, let's carry on.Now, regardless of how much experience anybody has with such things, this is undoubtedly terrifying and intimidating, particularly for a senior -ranking member of the Tory party and, no less, our Shadow Home Secretary.Now, Sky News now reports that French authorities have been contacted by the UK government after live rounds have been fired near a senior Tory.It says a French warship is set to have fired 17 live rounds in close proximity to the Shadow Home Secretary whilst he was on board the vessel in the English Channel.The UK government has now contacted their French counterparts for full context, a spokesperson has said.And Chris Philp on his ex -post here says, on the channel today, monitoring illegal migrant crossings, as I was being interviewed by the BBC just now, a French warship approached close and fired 17 live rounds behind it.

There was no notice or training exercise in place, felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.Now on the basis that we as a country are sending the French hundreds of millions of pounds to to deter small boat crossings, and yet they continue.And we have our Shadow Home Secretary in the channel monitoring what's going on, being interviewed by the BBC, and monitoring how many illegal boats are crossing the channel into British waters, and many of which are said to have been escorted through French waters into British waters by these French boats, it is absolutely utterly contemptible that a French warship would fire live rounds, 17 live rounds, near any British ship whatsoever, let alone one carrying a senior Member of Parliament and the Shadow Home Secretary.Sky News reports that a government spokesperson has told Sky News that we are in contact with the French authorities to understand the full context of this incident.Now, many Many people might be forgiven for thinking that this is an act of war, or a precursor to war, but that is not quite the case.But that doesn't mean that that's the end of the matter.

It is, in my view, fairly problematic, and I'll come to why in just a moment.In normal peacetime situations, warning shots, or a shot across the bow as you might know it, from a warship are not usually considered an act of war.They are instead a long -established signalling practice under maritime customs and generally treated as a non -lethal warning or de -escalatory measure rather than an armed attack.But there are serious problems here, and it's twofold really, which I will also compare with what happened with the Russian ship, so I'll come back to that in a minute as well.Now, first of all, under the UN Charter, Article 2 .4, the prohibition is on the threat or the use of force.A deliberate miss, intended only as a warning,

does not necessarily meet the threshold of an armed attack or a threat of force.But there is a problem here, because warning shots do become problematic in law when they are in the context of showing coercive political intent or targeting a state's sovereignty or escalation beyond mere signalling.In other words, if I were to take a fairly objective view of what's happening here, illegal migrant crossings which is carrying a senior member of Parliament whether that is or is not in the knowledge of the French warship we will wait to find out but I would expect that they do know because well it's the French warship and if we've got a senior member of Parliament on board a vessel in the middle of the channel I would expect them to know and I would expect them to find out before firing warning shots but in any event whether they knew or did not know that we have a member of Parliament on one of these vessels they would know that this vessel is monitoring illegal migrants in the Channel.Then, in my view, it is quite possible that this act by this French warship was that of coercive political intent.In other words, they were trying to dissuade this vessel, whether or not they knew it had a Member of Parliament on board, from doing what they were doing.They were saying, get out of here, stop doing what you are doing.

That is the only reasonable objective conclusion by this French warship here.But we can also compare this with what happened in the response to that Russian ship not too long ago, about a month ago, where there was a Russian frigate escorting Shadow Fleet tankers and being shadowed by the Royal Navy It fired several rifle warning shots near the UK -registered private yacht Bright Future, roughly 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, in international waters.The Russian account was that the yacht made a dangerous approach.Radio contact, flares and horn signals failed.Shots were fired across its path.from small arms at 150 to 500 meters when the vessels were close.

The yacht then altered course.Russia claimed strict accordance with international shipping regulations to avoid collision, whereas the UK official response from our then Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that it was reckless and deeply concerning.The MOD assessed the shots as warning to prevent possible collision from frigate drifting, not aimed at the yacht, and an isolated incident unlinked to the recent UK boarding of a Russian Shadow Fleet tanker.Make of that what you will.But coming back to this vessel here carrying our Shadow Home Secretary, the French, in my view, have a lot to answer for.Subscribe to the channel for more updates as they come.