A Conservative MP has claimed a French warship fired warning shots near a boat he was on in the Channel in an attempt to stop him highlighting the small boats crisis.

Chris Philp, who is his party’s home affairs spokesperson, was being interviewed by the BBC a couple of miles off Boulogne on Tuesday when the warship Flamant passed by. As it did so, a French navy officer standing at the stern fired 17 shots from a handgun, aiming away from Philp.

Philp turned to the BBC interviewer, Michael Keohan, and said: “Is that toward us? I dunno.”

After uploading a video of the incident to X, Philp claimed it could have been an attempt to stop coverage of the small boats crisis: “There was no notice or training exercise in place. Felt like warning shots or attempted intimidation.”

Others were sceptical that a French warship would have acted in response to Philp’s interview, or been aware of it. One former senior Border Force officer said: “There are often exercises at sea involving the Royal or the French navy, and shots are occasionally fired, usually using blanks. This may be nothing at all.”

Keohan described the incident as “the most unusual moment … in the quiet of the Channel”. He said he saw a French patrol officer at the back of the boat pointing a pistol toward the sea and believed that was where the shots came from.

The journalist added: “There was no warning for our boat, no signs given that this was the French intention. Even now it’s still not clear what the patrol boat was aiming at.”

The captain of the fishing boat, Matt Coker, said he also believed it was an attempt at intimidation.

“It’s a bit strange that as they approached us there wasn’t fire or anything and then as they went past, afterwards there wasn’t fire or anything,” he said. “They only seemed to be firing the weapons when they were right alongside us. So I find that a bit strange because we’ve got all this open sea out here.

“So it sounds like it might have been an effort to intimidate us. It could well have been, it might have just been a little bit of a warning shot. Maybe just a show of force or something.”

The French embassy and the French coastguard were approached for comment.