Britain is to pay millions more to France to police the Channel – despite the French refusing to accept targets to stop the boats.
Shabana Mahmood has signed off a £16.2 million cheque for a two-month extension to the current deal with Paris, which subsidises French beach patrols.
But the French have flatly refused the Home Secretary’s demand to link payments to success in stopping the boats.
Ms Mahmood is said to be frustrated by a fall in the interception rate, which has seen the French stop fewer than a third of those trying to cross illegally this year. More than 4,400 have already made the crossing since the start of the year, despite poor weather.
She demanded that future payments from the British taxpayer be linked to results. But the French refused, claiming it could endanger life at sea.
With the current deal due to expire on Tuesday night – and the prospect of a free-for-all in the Channel – Ms Mahmood agreed to extend the deal and carry on talking.
The Home Secretary vowed she would do ‘whatever it takes to restore order and control at our borders’.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour was allowing Britain to be ripped off by the French.
A ‘taxi boat’ collects migrants from Gravelines beach on the French coast as they start an illegal crossing to the UK
‘France is stopping fewer small boat illegal immigrants than ever,’ he said. ‘The bottom line is there should not be any illegal immigrants attempting to seek asylum in the UK having left France in the first place – because France is a safe country.
‘Labour don’t have the backbone to get a deal over the line. They are now going to pay £2 million a week for continued failure. We shouldn’t pay the French a penny until they agree to substantially increase their prevention rate and start intercepting at sea by force – as they promised last summer.
‘Keir Starmer has now presided over the most Channel crossings of any Prime Minister – up 45 per cent since the election. His absurd claim to ‘smash the gangs’ lies in tatters.’
But a Home Office source insisted Mahmood was ‘driving a hard bargain’ rather than accepting the terms offered by Paris.
‘She is determined to deliver the best deal for the British people to prevent illegal migrants getting to Britain,’ the source said. ‘We want more bang for our buck.’
In a statement, Ms Mahmood said: ‘Our work with France has stopped 42,000 attempts by illegal migrants to make the journey across the Channel.
‘While we finalise a new and improved UK-France deal, French law enforcement operations to stop illegal migrants in France will continue.
‘I will do whatever it takes to restore order and control at our borders.’
The current round of negotiations to sign a new £650 million deal were deadlocked because France rejected the payment-by-results plan.
Shabana Mahmood failed to get agreement from France for payment by results, but aides insis she will continue to ‘drive a hard bargain’
In turn, the British have rejected French requests to pay the salaries of staff at a new migrant detention centre in northern France, while also funding a French police barracks.
A senior Interior Ministry source on Tuesday told the Daily Mail that the UK would have to pay more to get an enhanced deal.
‘ Escalating costs have to be covered, and it is the British who need to cover them,’ the source said.
‘We are putting all the work in, protecting British interests.’
The French Navy has also objected to intervening at sea, with one senior officer saying: ‘Disaster, including drownings, can easily happen.’
Laurent Nunez, the current French Interior Minister, is a former Paris police prefect, and a lot more concerned about the dangers the new tactics pose to serving officers.
‘He agrees that intervening in boats at sea is incredibly dangerous and should be avoided at all costs,’ said another French National Police source.
Figures published by the UK Home Office show that French interception rates have fallen to the lowest on record so far this year.
In all, just 2,064 out of 6,233 attempted crossings have been stopped.
But Xavier Ducept, France’s general secretary for the sea, warned that linking funding to the number of interceptions would not be possible because it would endanger lives at sea.
He told a French parliamentary committee last week that such funding would ‘be extremely dangerous for migrants, for the security services, and for France.’
It comes as specialist French police units attempt to intercept small boats on canals and within 300 metres of the shore.
‘This is a dangerous new tactic, and it requires specialist training and more equipment – all of this costs,’ said the Interior Ministry official.
Last year, the French stopped around 35% of people smuggler small boats – carrying around 22,500 migrants – from getting across the English Channel.
The English money goes on paying police, including their overtime and insurance, as well as financing boats and drones.
The French government is expecting legal challenges to come from charities and NGOs, either through the French or European courts, as tactics are firmed up, and all this will cost too.
A senior source at Alliance – the largest police union in France – said: ‘People don’t seem to realise how dangerous it is to try and carry out arrests at sea, while trying to force a boat to change course.
‘If there are eighty people on an overcrowded boat, including women and children, then it is extremely dangerous to try and stop them.’
