Spectator owner’s son calls for mine-laden ‘floating wall’ to stop Channel crossings

Spectator owner’s son calls for mine-laden ‘floating wall’ to stop Channel crossings Winston Marshall, former member of Mumford & Sons, says people crossing are ‘economic migrants’ not refugees The son of the Spectator owner, Paul Marshall, has said Britain should construct a mine-laden “floating wall” to stop small boat crossings on the Channel. Winston Marshall, a former member of the band Mumford & Sons who is establishing himself as a rightwing online influencer, said that while the idea “might sound ridiculous”, it should be explored because previous attempts to stop the crossings had failed. Marshall, who launched his own YouTube show earlier this year vowing to cover topics “the corporate media won’t touch”, raised the idea in a Fox News discussion about a new £660m deal between the UK and France to tackle crossings, which he said had made him “pretty angry”. “This is an outlandish idea, but I think it’s actually feasible,” he said. “We’ve got to build a giant wall across the channel. This isn’t being talked about much. “I think if you consider that we spent £1bn now for six years trying to deter small boat crossings … We could build a floating wall, that’s mined, across the channel. “Now, that might sound ridiculous and it might even look ridiculous, but if it stops channel boat crossings …” The Dover Strait, the narrowest part of the channel, is the busiest shipping lane in the world. Marshall suggested there should be “sections maybe that are mined sections that are open to allow a proper operation”. Ministers from the previous Conservative government trialled a ‘blockade’ tactic . However, that envisaged crossings being “physically prevented” by rigid hull inflatable boats. Marshall’s father, Paul, is an increasingly influential hedge fund founder and media mogul who owns the Spectator magazine and co-owns GB News . Marshall’s appearance on Fox News is the latest sign of a growing transatlantic network of rightwing media and commentators, who often concen...