Donald Trump said the UK is “doing a fantastic thing” when questioned about how he would respond illegal boats arriving from France.

The US President said: “If you’re stopping immigration and stopping the wrong people, my hats are off to you. You’re doing, not a good thing, you’re doing a fantastic thing.

“So I know nothing about the boats, but if the boats are loaded up with bad people, and they usually are, because, you know, other countries don’t send their best they send people that they don’t want, and they’re not stupid people, and they send the people that they don’t want.”

Trump turned to Starmer before saying, "I've heard that you've taken a much stronger stance on this".