A Kent MP says the only way to prevent border controls moving from Calais to Kent is to stay in the EU.

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke was responding to fresh comments by a senior French politician who has warned that the current arrangements would be likely to end if there was a vote for a 'Brexit'.

Emanuel Macron, France’s economic minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times:

"The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais,” he said.

He added that a country leaving the single market would "not be able to secure the same terms" and the EU's "collective energy would be spent on unwinding existing links, not re-creating new ones".

The argument over what would happen to the current arrangements in which UK border officials were based at Calais is becoming a defining issue of the referendum.

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said: “This is the primary reason why we should remain in the EU, although I am highly sceptical of the whole European project. We cannot return to a situation where we have border checks back in Dover, that would be a disaster and a return to the bad old days of fifteen years ago.”

We cannot return to a situation where we have border checks back in Dover, that would be a disaster - Dover MP

He added: “M.Maccron is a very senior politician, the equivalent of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his comments should be taken very seriously.”

The issue of migrant camps and border controls has provoked a series of claims and counter claims between pro and anti EU campaign groups.

The Prime Minister has said that there was every possibility that migrant camps would relocate to Dover and Folkestone if there was a vote to leave the EU.

South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay has described the claims as “shameless” and “fear stories of the worst kind.”

He told KMTV that the treaty was a bilateral arrangement and nothing to do with EU treaties.

In or out? Two Kent MPs discuss the EU Referendum on our new political show on KMTV