How many illegal immigrants have been caught in and around the Channel over the last eight years?

How many border-related staff have their been available to deal with it?

These are some of the forensic questions Dover MP Charlie Elphicke is asking the Home Office following a series of high profile cases of illegal immigration.

He says there needs to be proper investment in border security and no "Dad's Army-style" set-up.

Mr Elphicke said this week: “The number of stories surfacing in recent weeks is extremely concerning.

“That’s why I have asked the Home Office for a detailed breakdown. We need to get a sense of the scale of this problem.

“It will help make an even stronger case for the investment I have been calling for to ensure our borders are truly safe and secure.

“In recent years we have increased security at Dover and Calais and got the Jungle dismantled – and now we must keep up the pressure.

"We must patrol the border properly – the whole border.”

Mr Elphicke, in a Facebook posting on Sunday, refererred to two recent cases, one of a speedboat with suspected illegal immigrants being intercepted at Walmer.

The other was of suspected clandestines being found in the back of a vegetable lorry near Canterbury.

He said: "We need to invest in skilled officers patrolling the whole of our border. We can’t have border security on the cheap with any kind of Dad’s Army-type set-up."

Mr Elphicke's office has submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office asking for five sets of figures, each year-on-year breakdowns since January 2010.

These are for the number of:

Clandestines intercepted in the English Channel, and at land adjacent or near it, in British territory.

Hours at sea for for deployable boats available to the agencies responsible for detention of clandestines in the Channel.

Deployable staff available to the agencies for the area.

Communications received from members of the public, at sea or land, reporting suspicious boat activity in the Channel.

The FoI was sent on August 8 and a reply is expected by September 7.

It follows incidents such as nine people being arrested on suspicious of human trafficking after a speedboat was intercepted by police when it landed at Walmer on August 3.

And businessman Jim Parmenter had to scrap another £25,000 worth of vegetables when illegal immigrants were found to have been in the back of a lorry near Canterbury on July 30.

This was on a lorry for his Canterbury fruit packing firm Gomez.

Mr Parmenter, who is also chairman of Dover Athletic Football Club, had in March calculated that Gomez had lost £500,000 in the last year through this problem.

This is because the load on any lorry which immigrants smuggle themselves onto is deemed contaminated and has to be destroyed.

Mr Elphicke had raised his concerns with Home Secretary Sajid Javid when he visited the Border Force base at Dover Eastern Docks early this month August.

The MP said in his Facebook post: "I raised my concerns over trafficking, illegal immigration and the need for stronger borders.

"We saw first-hand the cutting edge work done by our highly trained and expert officers. Their job is fundamental to our safety and security.

"I urged the Home Secretary to ensure they get the resources they need as we take back control of our borders."

Mr Elphicke said that the number of clandestines trying to get into Britain plummeted after the closure of the notorious Jungle camp in Calais in October 2016.

At its peak had 10,000 migrants.

Traffickers would block lorries on the road, for example with burning branches, so that illegal immigrants could creep into the back.

He said in his post: "This was a huge step forward. Yet we must remain vigilant and act swiftly to stop any new camp from forming – before the first tent is pitched.

"For too long Britain was seen as a soft touch on immigration. Dismantling the Calais Jungle has done much to change that perception. Yet we must continue to fight for stronger borders – where we control immigration and keep our nation safe and secure."