A French warship has been accused of firing warning shots within 300 metres of Conservative frontbencher Chris Philp whilst he was filming in the Channel.
On Tuesday, the shadow home secretary was filming a video on a fishing boat about small boat crossing in the Channel when what appeared to be a French war vessel passed by.
Philp was being interviewed by the BBC when the incident happened.
The Times was on the boat at the same time, with the publication reporting that a French Navy officer stood on the warship’s stern and fired 17 shots from a handgun.
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The officer was reportedly aiming away from Philp.
In a post on X sharing the footage, Philp said: “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 us.
“There was no notice or training exercise in place. Felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.”
The captain of the fishing boat Philp has accused the French warship of an attempt at intimidation.
He told the Times he had “never seen anything like it before.”
“It’s a bit strange that as they approached us there wasn’t fire or anything and then as they went past, afterwards there wasn’t fire or anything,” he continued.
“They only seemed to be firing the weapons when they were right alongside us. So I find that a bit strange because we’ve got all this open sea out here.
“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. Maybe just to show a force or something.”
Philp echoed accusations of intimidation from the French vessel, saying: “It felt to me like an attempted intimidation to stop us covering the migrant crossings.”
French authorities have since said the vessel was taking part in a training exercise.
However, Philp has said this is “not credible.”
He wrote on X: “There were no warnings in place about live firing training exercises. They fired the live rounds at the closest point of approach to us – and didn’t fire anything that we saw before or after It looked and sounded exactly like deliberate intimidation.”