When Chris Philp heard a volley of shots on the high seas and spun round to see a French gunship, he believed he was the victim of naval aggression – and updated his social media feed accordingly.
The reality appears to be more mundane: it was, the French authorities said, a routine Channel training exercise by officers who had no idea that the shadow home affairs spokesperson was present, or who he was in the first place.
Philp was being interviewed by the BBC on a fishing vessel a couple of miles off Boulogne on Tuesday when the French boat Flamant passed by at a distance of about 300 metres. As it did so, a French navy officer standing at the stern fired 17 shots from a handgun, aiming away from Philp.
Philp, who was being questioned about the small boats crisis, turned to the BBC interviewer Michael Keohan and said: “Is that toward us? I dunno.”
After uploading a video of the incident to X, Philp claimed it could have been an attempt to censor debate about asylum seekers travelling to the UK in dinghies: “There was no notice or training exercise in place. Felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.”