When we voted to leave the failing European Union five years ago, there were many reasons that motivated 17.4m votes for Brexit – restoring our sovereignty, clawing back obscene pay-outs to Brussels, and speaking out for democracy.

But we also needed to control our borders after years of out of control immigration from the EU, driving down wages for ordinary workers and putting strain on our health service and schools.

Sadly, having regained control of legal immigration into the country, a surge of illegal immigration from the continent is underway – with French naval vessels shadowing boatloads of uninvited guests into British waters, where they are ferried into Dover by Britain’s so-called Border Force.

Similarly, we’ve clawed back money from Brussels, but we are bunging an additional £54m to the French in the hopes they may finally do something to stem this tide of illegal crossings – even though an earlier hand-out of millions failed to do the job.

The situation is getting worse and worse, with a record 430 landing in Britain in a single day on Monday. It’s time for the government to use its whopping majority, handed to it by Britain’s patriotic pro-Brexit majority, and get this situation under control with tough measures to turn boats around and unshackle ourselves from the ridiculous Human Rights Act.

We’re using our platform to give this crisis the due prominence it deserves, unlike left-leaning mainstream press outlets who would rather sweep it under the rug – or, worse yet, make excuses for those illegally entering our country.

And we won’t make excuses for the government either. We bac​​ked Boris to get into Downing Street and we’ve supported Priti Patel to be the toughest Home Secretary in living memory. Now, with the crisis in the Channel swelling to worse levels than ever, it’s time for them to deliver the goods and protect our country from this lawless inflow.

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That’s why we were so pleased this week to see the government’s new command paper and to hear Boris’s right-hand man on Brexit, ​​David Frost, state clearly in the House of Lords that Britain would be justified in invoking Article 16 of the Protocol to suspend its operation in part and restore order to our customs territory.

The government’s statement was so encouraging that Ian Paisley, who has battled against this Protocol so bravely, even suggested that serious government action in line with the command paper could see a major commercial action against the government paused.

Despite the UK being fully justified in triggering Article 16, Lord Frost instead called for the EU to come back to the negotiating table and resolve the remaining issues through constructive talk and re-negotiation.

He wanted goods to circulate more freely in Northern Ireland, and he wanted the end to biased ECJ rule over UK-EU relations – a legal arrangement which, at present, is a complete insult to British sovereignty.

But instead of a reasonable response to a reasonable request for fresh talks, European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič flatly refused to re-open talks.

That’s what we’re dealing with. The government gave the EU a chance to behave like serious partners, and instead they’ve decided to remain stubborn and petulant.

If the EU doesn’t want to talk, re-negotiation is off the table. And that leaves us with just one alternative. Trigger Article 16 immediately, secure supply lines between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and defend the United Kingdom from malicious EU attempts to break up the UK.