David Hanson MP, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, responding to reports on overnight closures of the Channel Tunnel, said:

“Any closure of the Channel Tunnel will be very damaging to the business and tourist economy and confidence, and is a clear sign of the failure of David Cameron’s approach to tackling the challenges at Calais.

“Only this week Philip Hammond boasted the Government were on top of the situation when clearly now they are not. The Government still have no real grip on the situation which is unforgivable given the clear warnings they have had over many months from business and MPs.

“It is about time a minister visited Calais, as I and other opposition MPs have done to see for themselves.

“We need to make sure that those migrants at Calais are assessed for asylum, or refugee claims, with their status identified and processed by the French ‎authorities.

“The UK government continues to need to support solutions to the long term migrant challenges of people trafficking in the Mediterranean where we have seen more tragic deaths this week.”