The UK must clamp down on allowing migrants to cross the Channel illegally and then “work for peanuts” on the black market, according to the head of the Calais region.

The call from Xavier Bertrand, the Right-wing head of the Hauts-de-France region came a day before a meeting between Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, and Bruno Retailleau, her hardline French counterpart, to discuss the Channel migrant situation.

Speaking to French broadcaster TF1, Mr Bertrand said: “We have to be prepared to say listen, Britons, if things don’t change we’re going to hand your border back.”

He was referring to the Le Touquet agreements, a 2003 deal under which France and the UK carry out immigration controls in each other’s territories at seaports.

French officials have regularly threatened to rip up the accords but have never done so amid fears that would simply attract scores more migrants hoping to reach the UK from France’s northern shores.

Last year, some 36,816 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK.