Reform MP Richard Tice has said there is ‘blood on the hands of the government’ for refusing to take migrant boats back to France.
Mr Tice said the French would do a deal to build a migrant processing centre in northern France rather than take military action.
Speaking on GB News Richard Tice reflected on today's deaths in the Channel and said:
“It's utterly horrific and sadly, was completely predictable. Just three days ago, there was almost the capsize of a boat with some 60 people in, and I tweeted out that a major tragedy is probably imminent.
“And three days later, tragically, I've been proven correct.
“Yesterday, a boat capsized with some 50 people in it. The only way this will stop, the only way the deaths will stop, and about 40 people now have died this year alone trying to cross the English Channel, is if you pick up and take back.
“And what makes me absolutely sick with fury and rage is the bleating and whining of people like Care for Calais and the Refugee Council and other do-good bodies, who say we need more safe and legal routes.
“The only way to stop these deaths and this tragedy, is to pick up and take back. And yet these lefty, lovey dovey lawyers, they continue to stop what needs to be done to be kind and compassionate and stop the deaths.
“And this is compounded by the fact now that it seems the men on these boats are taking the life jackets and leaving the women and children completely defenceless.
“So what we're actually seeing is that, having removed any form of deterrent, the numbers are increasing. And the gangs, far from being scared about the Home Secretary's promise to smash their gangs, they're actually saying this is an opportunity.
“The deterrent is going away. The likelihood of being granted asylum has dramatically increased under this new government, and so they're cramming these increasingly frail and fragile, single use dinghies with ever more people.
“It seems this dinghy literally had the bottom ripped out of it, so many people were clambering on board.
“And it's a very simple, legally allowable situation that has to prevail here. Both the French authorities who are aiding and abetting criminality by allowing these boats to be taxied over by the French Navy.
“And the British authorities have got to say it ends. It stops now. We pick up and take back.
“We know it works, we know it's legal because the Belgian authorities have done it.
“And on one day, since being the new government, the Border Force under the new Labour government did exactly the same thing when a boat got into trouble.
“The moment we do that this whole nightmare, these tragedies and these deaths, stop within two to three weeks. And it's utterly inexcusable, unforgivable. [There is] blood on the hands of the government, the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister and all of these people who will not do this.
“Under international maritime law - and we are a rules based nation, and this government constantly says it complies with international law, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea clearly gives us that legal right to pick up and take back.
“And it provides a legal obligation on the French to pick up and take back. And yet no one has the courage, the guts, the leadership to read the treaty and then act upon it.
[The French] have got two choices when it comes to it, right? If we say they're not crossing the 12 mile line and we're going to pick up and take back, which is what should happen, then the French have either got to do a deal with us and create a rapid processing centre in northern France, or they're going to shoot us.
“Well, they're not going to shoot us, so they're going to do a deal with us. But this requires leadership. That's what we expect our government to do, and it requires courage.
“And we keep hearing from people like the Foreign Secretary David Lammy talking about tough choices, and the Chancellor talk about tough choices. Well this is actually quite an easy choice. It saves people's lives.“
