Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart has threatened to ‘open the border’ unless the British government is willing to sit down for talks to resolve the migrant crisis.

She accused David Cameron of ‘mocking’ French authorities and trying to ‘impose’ British law on Calais.

Although Miss Bouchart has no say on actual border controls, she is in charge of police in Calais and could relax the heavy security operation restricting migrants’ attempts to access the Channel Tunnel terminal and port.

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Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart has threatened to ‘open the border’ unless the British government is willing to sit down for talks to resolve the migrant crisis. File picture

Migrants are seen climbing into the back of a lorry on the A16, which leads to the Eurotunnel in Calais, France, in a desperate bid to sneak across the Channel as its revealed up to 900 are getting into the UK each month

Drivers wait next to their parked lorries on the M20 in Kent as Operation Stack continues due to Calais chaos

Kent Chief Constable Alan Pughsley has warned that 70 per cent of the migrants who attempt to cross the Channel are making it to Britain. Pictured: A migrant sits under a lorry as he attempts to cross the Channel

Last night, she was warned by British MPs that such a move could ‘open the floodgates’ and attract thousands more migrants to Calais, with ‘very serious consequences’.

Miss Bouchart, who is also a Senator, said the crisis in her city should be escalated to a ‘diplomatic incident’.

The Republican mayor said yesterday: ‘The British Prime Minister David Cameron mocks us, he is disdainful of the territory, he imposes his laws on the Calais region.’

She said: ‘If the British do not want to sit around the table (to discuss) security and humanity, we must open the border.’

In an interview with a French radio station, Miss Bouchart also repeated her demand that Britain should provide millions of pounds of ‘compensation’ to Calais.

Previous talks have taken place on the crisis between Mr Cameron and the French President.

Migrants gather to attempt to overrun a police cordon by the security fence of the Eurotunnel site at Coquelles

But Miss Bouchart said Francois Hollande should ‘bang on the table once and for all’ to reach agreement on a solution.

Mr Cameron has called for the countries across the EU to ‘break the link between travelling and getting to stay in Europe’ whereas Miss Bouchart has claimed benefits on offer in Britain make it an ‘El Dorado’ for migrants.

But Miss Bouchart was warned by Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee that any relaxation of security would ‘open the floodgates’ for more migrants to head to Calais – as well as cause ‘major disruption’ for cross-Channel traffic.

Mr Vaz said: ‘She does not control the border but if she chooses to relax the policing operation it could have very serious consequences.

‘I have some sympathy with Miss Bouchart – she is under a huge amount of pressure – but any relaxation of security would open the floodgates.

‘Every migrant coming from Greece and Italy would eventually end up in Calais.’

He added: ‘She is wrong to blame the British government for this. She is wrong to say that people are coming over to Britain for benefits.

‘President Hollande banging the table will not make any difference.’

Mr Vaz has invited Miss Bouchart to return to London next month to discuss the crisis with his committee after a previous appearance last October.

‘A lot has changed since the last time she was before us,’ he said.

Makeshift: Thousands of migrants - many of whom have fled persecution and war in their home countries - have set up camp in Calais

Conservative MP and former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: ‘These inflammatory comments are most unlikely to help in this complex situation. Cool heads and sensible negotiation are what is required.’

More than 5,000 migrants remain in Calais. Most are residents of the New Jungle, the sprawling shanty town where the BBC’s Songs of Praise programme was controversially filmed from a makeshift Ethiopian church last weekend.

The camp is gaining an air of permanence as tents are gradually being replaced with wooden and plastic shelters.

Hundreds of migrants are still trying to scale fences and board trains at the Eurotunnel freight terminal on a nightly basis - although services have not been disrupted since last week when a Sudanese migrant managed to walk 31 miles along the Channel Tunnel before being arrested by British police.

Exodus: Migrants walk on the train tracks in the direction of the Eurotunnel terminal in France

Desperate: People climb over the gate of the Jules Ferry day care centre (pictured) for migrants to be first to take a shower in Calais, northern France

Earlier this month, mass incursions of the terminal by migrants combined with a strike by ferry workers caused massive disruption with delays for car and freight traffic, with the M20 motorway in Kent closed and turned into a mass lorry park under Operation Stack.

Miss Bouchart has said that the situation is ‘barely manageable’ - posing a huge drain on the region’s resources.

As well as the demands on the police, hospitals are having to cope with a constant influx seriously injured migrants, some suffering broken limbs from falling as they try to climb fencing. Others have suffered cuts from razor wire or have been in road accidents

One migrant from Kosovo, who is now back at the Jungle camp with his right leg in a plaster cast, said: ‘I broke my leg and have spent two weeks in hospital. I have to leave it for a few weeks to heal but I will then try again to board the trains.’

Blob: It also emerged yesterday that people smugglers offering migrants an alternative to risky attempts to board Channel Tunnel Trains are offering travel in exchange for sexual favours.

Nord Littoral, a local newspaper in Calais reported how Albanian traffickers make the offer to women unable to afford their normal fee of several thousand pounds.