WATCH: Alex Armstrong left furious at 'complete political theatre' after footage of French police slashing migrant boats

GB News

Alex Armstrong has launched a scathing attack on footage showing French police slashing a migrant boat, dismissing the intervention as "complete political theatre".The incident that sparked Armstrong's criticism occurred early Friday morning on a beach south of Boulogne.French police officers waded into shallow waters and used knives to slash an inflatable boat packed with men, women and children.The vessel was wallowing dangerously in the waves when officers intervened. All passengers managed to clamber to safety as the boat collapsed and rapidly deflated.READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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00:00A bit better. Alex, this is one of your specialist subjects.

00:02What do you make of the fact the French have started slashing the boats?

00:05I just don't buy it. Do any of you really buy it that they're going to do this every day?

00:09It's theatre, isn't it? It's complete political theatre.

00:12I think you've absolutely nailed it, Patrick.

00:14Emmanuel Macron's coming over. He doesn't want to protest.

00:16He probably wants to come over all glorified.

00:19Look, we're stopping the boats now. Thanks for all that money you gave us years ago.

00:22We're actually doing the job you're paying us to do.

00:24I think it's a load of nonsense, Pat. I really do. Really do.

00:27Are you as cynical as I am, Christo?

00:28I am cynical because I always thought that they hid behind the law

00:32that once a boat is in the water, they're not allowed to actually puncture it.

00:37Well, they say they've changed it now.

00:38So now they can do that, apparently.

00:41They've changed the law.

00:44I don't believe it.

00:44So now we've got to hold them to account.

00:46We've seen them what they can do because I think most ordinary people

00:49looking at those police officers on the beach,

00:52watching those migrant boats go off right in front of them,

00:54and we know as a country we're paying them millions of pounds,

00:57most of us were just like, our jaws were on the floor.

00:59You're literally like, what?

01:00Common sense completely gone out of the window.

01:03So I think, actually, I know we want to be cynical,

01:06and I know we might think it's about Macron,

01:08and I'm sure that's part of it, but I think we should applaud it.

01:10This is the first time they've actually done something

01:13which all of us can look at and go, yes, common sense.

01:16People in a boat, get a knife out, slash it.

01:18But also, we also should glorify one boat of hundreds of boats

01:23that have crossed to the challenge.

01:24We shouldn't glorify the fact they've done their job once.

01:27If I did my job once, I would have been sacked a long time ago.

01:30And that's the reality.

01:31We shouldn't go, well done, France, you did your job.

01:33That's why I'm not giving it any credence.

01:36It's nonsense.

01:36It's like we've been given a little crumb.

01:38So I think we've just...

01:39Well done, British.

01:40Here you go.

01:4150 people, 20,000 more coming.

01:43Yeah, because the other thing is obviously going to be the follow-up.

01:46So when I was out there in Calais, what really stood out to me

01:49was there was a big, great, big migrant camp,

01:51and it's next to the sea.

01:52And the French hadn't even bothered to put a fence up.

01:55So there's no fence between that camp

01:57and where they walk across the field to get on the beach,

01:59to get the boats, to come to Britain.

02:01And I would have thought that maybe the least they could do

02:03was put a fence up, and they didn't do that.

02:05So I am very sceptical about this.

02:06The other thing is, what do they do once they've got them off the boat?

02:08Do they say, all right, go and have another go tomorrow?

02:10Is that what it is?

02:11They say, oh, you can just go back in, you know, rest up.

02:13Better luck next time, chaps.

02:14Let's be honest, it is mostly chaps, isn't it?

02:16But, Barry, what do you make of it?

02:17Because the argument would be that this is in some way

02:20a victory for Rebecca Cooper.

02:21She's got the French to change their law,

02:23and now they've seen them doing something.

02:25Well, it's not a victory until it is a repeated,

02:28habitual way of dealing with this.

02:31So I understand why you're sceptical.

02:34I think I want to be sceptical as well, you know.

02:38We didn't call them for 200 years the perfidious French for nothing.

02:42That's a good point.

02:43You know, but actually, I think let's see what happens.

02:48They have changed the law.

02:50Emily's right.

02:51And if we say to Macron when he comes over,

02:55oh, well, you've only done it once,

02:56that's not going to help the situation.

02:59So I think what we've got to say is, look,

03:01thanks for doing it, but keep on doing it.

03:03Guys, have we got footage of that?

03:04I think it's somewhere in there, isn't it?

03:05I don't know if we can maybe bring up the footage

03:07of the French actually doing it,

03:08because it was quite telling, really, I thought.

03:10They actually decided to go and slash the bow,

03:12and I think we might be able to show that in a second.

03:13But, you know, to Armand's point here,

03:16you know, this has cost us a huge amount of money.

03:18Do we honestly think that the French

03:20are going to continue to do this?

03:21I'm not sure.

03:22They are under pressure.

03:23Can I just say that there was a,

03:25there's a charity there, Project Play,

03:27which has basically said it's dangerous

03:30to pierce the boats

03:30because there might be children in the boats.

03:32They're not worried the children are in the boats

03:33when they're going across the saddle.

03:34What is it?

03:35They're worried about them being cleaners.

03:36No, but also, a child was stamped to death

03:39as the boat went into the water

03:41by other young male migrants.

03:44I just want to briefly say,

03:45there's only one way to stop the boats,

03:46and that is to start deportations in this country

03:48once we start deporting people,

03:50they won't keep coming.

03:51We need to grow up, we need to get some balls.

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