Italy has 600 patrol boats, Greece 203, Spain 147. Britain has three

BRITAIN’S porous borders were exposed again yesterday by research that shows many European countries have hundreds more boats patrolling their coasts. The Tory MP Anne Main found that while the UK’s Border Force has just three cutters deployed, countries with fewer miles of coastline have far more ships on the water.

Italy has 600 boats deployed, Greece has 203 and Spain has 147, while even the Netherlands – whose coastline is a fraction of Britain’s – has 16 ships in service, according to her research.

Mrs Main, the St Albans MP backing Brexit, warned that the UK coastline was “more porous than a sieve” and said the failure to deploy more boats was “negligent”.

The findings have so alarmed Keith Vaz, the home affairs committee chairman, that he has written a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, demanding a response. The Daily Tele

graph is running a Border Security campaign calling for tighter controls.

Officials from the department warned that the figures for the UK do not include new patrol boats that have been announced recently.

Discussing her research, Mrs Main said: “It’s frankly negligent. The British people could be forgiven for thinking it’s ridiculous to expect three boats to patrol nearly 8,000 miles of coastline, when even Holland have around 16 pa- trolling 280 miles. This reckless disregard for border security flies in the face of the Remain campaign’s ludicrous claim that we have control of our borders.”

Mr Vaz, the Labour MP, said: “It cannot be right that an island nation should have far fewer vessels policing its borders than countries in mainland Europe. Recent events have shown that we need more vessels to be deployed, and the Border Force should be able to request that the Royal Navy provide ships and equipment as and when required.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “These figures only include the number of cutters currently deployed in UK territorial waters and take no account of the additional military and law enforce- ment vessels available. Border Force uses a combination of cutters, radar and aerial surveillance to detect efforts to smuggle guns and drugs or facilitate illegal entry into the country.

“We also work closely with domestic and international partners on an intelligence-led approach, allowing us to tackle the criminals involved before they leave for the UK.”