Keir Starmer‘s Channel migrant plans suffered another blow today amid claims that France is ditching a deal to intercept boats.
The PM had hoped the French were about to adopt a new ‘maritime doctrine’ that would see more forceful interventions to stop dinghies leaving shore.
However, sources have now told the BBC the idea was only a ‘political stunt’ and has been abandoned. There had been concerns in some quarters that it could risk deaths and break international law.
The latest setback comes after Sir Keir’s ‘one in, one out’ agreement with Emmanuel Macron descended into chaos – and numbers crossing this year surpassed the total for 2024.
A migrant deported to France returned to Britain on a small boat – just 29 days after he was kicked out of the country under the flagship borders policy.
The Conservatives said the debacle showed the Government’s returns deal with France was ‘descending into farce’.
Home Office sources confirmed the unnamed Iranian man first arrived here on August 6 – the day the agreement came into force – and was detained before being removed from Britain on September 19 on a scheduled flight.
The latest setback comes after Keir Starmer’s ‘one in, one out’ agreement with Emmanuel Macron (pictured together last week) descended into chaos – and numbers crossing this year surpassed the total for 2024
The PM had hoped the French were about to adopt a new ‘maritime doctrine’ that would see more forceful interventions to stop dinghies leaving shore (pictured, a boat leaves Gravelines in France yesterday)
But he later slipped out of a migrant shelter in Paris, where he had been housed, and headed back to the northern French coast.
There he boarded a dinghy back to the UK, arriving alongside 368 others on Saturday.
Border officials identified him as a returning migrant through biometric checks and he is now once again being held in an immigration removal centre, waiting to be sent back for a second time.
The Iranian claims he is not safe in France and is a victim of modern slavery at the hands of people trafficking gangs. Such claims are being used in court appeals attempting to thwart the removals process.
Sir Keir and Mr Macron held a summit in July on ways to tackle the Channel crisis.
They discussed how to intercept so-called ‘taxi boats’ used by people smugglers to cruise close to the coastline, collecting passengers as they waded in.
Footage at the time showing French officers slashing a dinghy as it tried to depart was hailed as a ‘a really significant moment’ by Downing Street.
The French interior ministry signalled that ‘interventions at sea’ would be starting. But since then Mr Macron’s administration has been plunged into a political crisis, with his interior minister ousted.
One figure closely linked to French maritime security told the BBC that the concept was unlikely to be implemented.
‘It’s just a political stunt. It’s much blah-blah,’ they said.
Peter Walsh, who researches the issue at Oxford’s Migration Observatory, added: ‘It’s possible that might never happen.’
In a round of interviews this morning, children’s minister Josh MacAlister insisted the episode with the deported Channel migrant coming back to Britain showed Sir Keir’s deal was working.
‘I think it shows the scheme working, because this guy came here. He shouldn’t have come here. He paid somebody, a smuggling gang, to cross the Channel,’ he told Times Radio.
Migrants waiting on the French coast to be picked up by a so-called ‘taxi boat’ yesterday
‘He was stopped, he was detained, and he was returned to France. He came again. He paid someone again, and he will be returned to France again.
‘And the message is really clear from the Government, if you come here illegally and you cross, as we scale up this French returns agreement, you will be deported.
‘You will go back to France. The money you’ve spent will be wasted. And if you do it again and again, you will be returned again and again.’
He could not say whether the man would be counted once or twice on the returns statistics.
