UK sends navy vessels to Jersey amid post-Brexit fishing row with France

Boris Johnson dispatches two gunboats to protect island from feared blockade

Boris Johnson has dispatched two Royal Navy patrol boats to protect Jersey from a feared blockade by French fishing vessels, in an escalation of a dispute over post-Brexit access to waters around the Channel island.

The move followed talks on Wednesday evening between the prime minister and the chief minister of the British crown dependency, John Le Fondre, who had warned Downing Street of imminent movements by French fishing boats to cut off the island's main port.