France disinvites Patel to Channel crisis talks amid anger over tweet

The French government has withdrawn an invitation to the home secretary, Priti Patel, to attend a meeting about the Channel boats crisis after Boris Johnson called on France to take back people who crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats.

- Rajeev Syal and Jon Henley

In an escalation of the political crisis after the deaths of 27 people in the Channel, the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has written to Patel to say a meeting tomorrow would proceed without British involvement.

It follows Johnson’s letter to President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night setting out five steps to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s tragedy. The letter was sent publicly as a tweet in time for the front pages of UK newspapers and French officials confirmed Macron had not seen the letter before Johnson tweeted it.

Darmanin told Patel the letter from Johnson to Macron, suggesting France take back people who cross the Channel, was a “disappointment”.

Referring to Johnson’s posting of the letter on social media, he added: “Making it public made it even worse. I therefore need to cancel our meeting in Calais on Sunday.”

During a visit to Italy, Macron also said he was “surprised by these methods, which are not serious”.

He said: “One does not communicate from one leader to another, on questions such as these, by tweet and by letters that one then makes public. We are not whistleblowers.”