Battle of the small boats

• Braverman admits up to 80,000 migrants could make Channel crossing this year • Home secretary's own staff tell her: Stop the Boats plan won't work - it's just empty threats

• Macron: I'll charge UK millions every year to stem the tide of illegal migration

Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak are on a collision course with civil servants over their small boats plan. Plans to turn back arrivals have provoked a huge row, with the Tory government defending its policy while the UN’s refugee agency called the proposals illegal. Home Office staff told The Independent the home secretary’s plans were “empty threats”. She defended her Illegal Migration Bill as “necessary, proportionate and humanitarian”, saying that up to 80,000 people could cross the Channel this year. But Emmanuel Macron is expected to tell the PM tomorrow that Britain will have to make annual payments if it wants France to step up patrols of migrants in Calais.