Calais Crisis: Cameron's Worst Nightmare

Cameron's own Conservative Party is split over Europe, with a significant minority wanting out of the European Union altogether. It is an issue that split the party down the middle when it was last in majority power in the late 1990s. It proved such a divisive issue that it was one of the reasons the party lost the 1997 election and remained out of power for 13 years.

In the run-up to this year's general election in May, Cameron attempted to fend off the huge rise in popularity of the anti-EU UKIP Party and promised an In/Out referendum on the UK's membership of a revised EU. 

Cameron won the election with a slim majority, with UKIP coming a creditable third in the share of the vote.

The current crisis in Calais is now proving to be a major political headache for Cameron as public anger over the migrant issue is rising in the UK. For weeks the main roads around the port of Dover have been gridlocked, with lorries queuing up for days waiting for the cross channel freight service to resume.

The M20 motorway has now been cleared of lorries and the government is expected to announce a deal with the owners of the disused Manston airport in Ramsgate to use the runway as a lorry park in the future.

Rising Anger Over Migrants and EU

There has been rising anger in the area around Dover at the traffic chaos that has been caused by the migrants bringing the Eurotunnel freight service to a halt by invading the depot in Calais in attempting to ride the wagons and escape to the UK.

More widely, in Britain, public opinion is very much against allowing the migrants in. In a special agreement with the French — known as the Sangatte and Le Touquet treaties — the UK Border Agency processes migrant applications on French soil, which means that — when they are refused permission to travel to the UK by train or ferry — they remain in France.

It is at that point they make their way to the freight terminal at Coquelles, near Calais, where they have repeatedly cut through security fences and stormed the freight terminal, causing the rail services to be canceled — which, in turn, causes massive delays and traffic chaos either side of the English Channel.

There have been calls in France to tear up the agreements and allow the migrants total freedom to cross the Channel, where they would end up in and around Dover, causing massive chaos and a great deal of public anger.

This is proving to be a major issue for Cameron, who is desperate to re-negotiate the UK's membership of the EU in an effort to keep his country in the European Union. He is expected to hold the In/Out referendum some time next year. Although he promised it by the end of 2017, he is keen to hold it earlier so that it does not clash with the run-up to both the French presidential election and the German federal election in 2017.

If anti-EU sentiment continues to rise because of the Calais crisis — which Cameron has admitted will not be over for a long time — it will badly affect his campaign for the UK to remain in Europe and make it tougher for him to retain his credibility when arguing to remain in the EU.