A rapidly swelling migrant camp near the northern French port of Dunkirk - and 50 miles from Dover - is to be dismantled "as soon as possible", the French interior minister said on Wednesday.

Bruno Le Roux warned the camp was reaching critical mass and could act as a magnet for more migrants to come there. His comments put him on collision course with the local mayor who said the camp was "more necessary than ever".

France is struggling to cope with new waves of migrants desperate to reach Britain barely four months after the sprawling Calais “Jungle” shanty-town was bulldozed in an effort to end the crisis.

More than 1,500 migrants, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, are crammed into unheated, waterlogged chipboard huts at the state-funded camp of Grande-Synthe beside the nearby port of Dunkirk. Its population has more than doubled from about 700 before the Calais camp was closed.