A flotilla of ‘Little Ships’ crossing the Channel to commemorate the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 was forced to divert so Border Force could provide safe passage for illegal immigrants heading for Kent.

Eighty-five years after 1,000 assorted fishing boats and pleasure craft set off from England to rescue troops trapped on the beaches of northern France, the British government agency charged with protecting our borders was ferrying yet another boatload of military-age migrants in the opposite direction.