A Government minister has insisted Britain has a “good working relationship” with France despite accusations the country has been used as a “punching bag” in the migrant crisis.

Home Office minister Damian Hinds said a meeting between Home Secretary Priti Patel and her counterpart Gerald Darmanin on Monday had been “productive” but admitted there was more to be done to stem the flow of migrants making dangerous journeys across the English Channel.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Mr Hinds said: “What I can tell you is we have a good working relationship with our French counterparts, and specifically with the minister, but we know, they know, that collectively together that we need to do more.”

Comments have been made by the French that the UK has used France as a “punching bag” in the migrant crisis and that the country “needs no lesson from the British” on the issue.

And Mr Hinds was asked whether these reflected the image being portrayed about the relationship.

He told LBC: “Our relationship with France is very important. We welcome France’s commitment but we need to step up and do more, and as I say it was a productive discussion yesterday.”

It comes as French police were evacuating migrants from a makeshift camp near Dunkirk, in northern France, where at least 1,500 people gathered in hopes of making it across the Channel to Britain.

French interior minister Mr Darmanin tweeted that authorities would provide shelters for the migrants.

He also said police dismantled a network of smugglers in the Dunkirk region, leading to 13 people being detained.

Home Secretary Ms Patel said she had “reiterated the importance of working together to make this deadly route unviable”.

The Home Office said UK authorities had to rescue or intercept 103 people trying to cross the Channel in four crossings on Monday, while French authorities stopped 32 people from reaching the UK in two crossings.

Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine Channel threat commander, said: “These journeys are dangerous and facilitated by violent criminal gangs profiting from misery.

“We are working with the French to stop boats leaving their beaches and crackdown on the criminals driving these crossings.

“People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. The Government’s New Plan for Immigration will fix the asylum system, making it firm on those who abuse it and fair on those in genuine need.”

More than 23,500 people have now reached the UK after crossing the English Channel onboard small boats this year, according to data compiled by the PA news agency.

More than 3,770 people succeeded in crossing to Britain in the first two weeks of November, PA data shows.

Mr Hinds said people smugglers were “trading on people’s vulnerabilities, earning large sums of money to get them to take extremely perilous journeys, which they should not be doing”.

But shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called for an “effective deal” with the French.

He told LBC: “We need an effective deal with the French authorities and what that means is not just concentrating on the coast, important though coastal patrols are we need to be looking at how we can disrupt people-smuggling gangs away from the coast.

“People don’t become refugees in northern France, they’ve usually been on a journey of sometimes thousands of miles, facilitated by these vile people smugglers.

“We need to be tackling that more upstream.”