Campaigners last night threatened to scupper Keir Starmer‘s migrant return deal with France.
Only a day after unveiling the scheme alongside Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister was facing objections from Europe and charities that helped ground the Tories‘ Rwanda plan.
The new scheme was condemned by campaigners, who said they would support court cases brought by small-boat arrivals chosen to be sent back to France. A border union boss said the legal challenges could take a year.
Brussels ominously warned that it was assessing whether the scheme complied with the ‘spirit and the letter of the law’, while governments including Italy were said to be harbouring ‘huge doubts’ about its legality.
It came as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper refused to say how many of the thousands arriving by dinghy will be removed under the pilot scheme, amid fears it could be even fewer than the 50 a week suggested by French officials this week.
Migrants waiting in Calais camps yesterday laughed off any suggestions the deal was a deterrent, and were already seemingly aware of how to defy attempts to send them back.
Another 573 people made it across the Channel in ten boats on Thursday, the day the Anglo-French deal was announced, taking the record tally for the year so far to 21,690.
Last night, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Mail: ‘This pathetic arrangement may be sunk by legal challenges from activist lawyers and irresponsible charities who want to facilitate illegal immigration into the UK.
The Prime Minister and French president Emmanuel Macron announced a ‘one in, one out’ migrant swap deal which was far less ambitious than expected
The new scheme was condemned by campaigners, who said they would support court cases brought by small-boat arrivals chosen to be sent back to France. Pictured: Migrants sit on an inflatable dinghy as it sails along the coastline near Gravelines, France, on Thursday
French police try to stop a group of migrants as they walk on the beach in an attempt to get on an inflatable dinghy to cross the English Channel to reach Britain
‘With illegal immigration across the Channel so far this year hitting record levels, Keir Starmer must now be bitterly regretting his foolish decision to cancel the Rwanda deterrent scheme before it even started.
‘After two years of legal challenges and legislation, the scheme was ready to go, but Starmer cancelled it just days before the first plane was due to take off last July.
‘This would have enabled 100 per cent of the illegal immigrants to be immediately removed without judicial interference.
‘The boats would soon have stopped. But Starmer is too weak and too mentally enslaved by his human rights lawyer friends to do what is needed to protect our country’s borders.’
Downing Street insisted the controversial ‘one in, one out’ agreement was legally sound and that Brussels supported it.
But fearing that returned migrants could head to Italy, the country’s interior minister told Sky News: ‘We know the EU Commission is still evaluating the agreement, and EU countries, including us, have huge doubts about security and legal aspects of the deal.’
A spokesman for the commission said: ‘On the specific envisaged co-operation between France and the United Kingdom, the commission will assess the concrete modalities of this co-operation.
‘And, of course, we continue to work with France and the UK, as well as other EU member states, to support solutions that are compatible with the spirit and the letter of EU law.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp (pictured) said: ‘This pathetic arrangement may be sunk by legal challenges from activist lawyers and irresponsible charities who want to facilitate illegal immigration into the UK’
Ms Cooper said the new arrangement would ‘fundamentally undermine’ the people-smuggling gangs fuelling the crisis, adding that the Government had done ‘a lot of work to make sure that the system is robust to legal challenges’.
A No 10 spokesman said: ‘France is a safe country – that’s an important point.
‘A lot of work has been carried out already to make sure this new scheme is robust to legal challenge and we are confident this scheme complies with both domestic and international law.’
But Steve Peers, professor of law at Royal Holloway University, said the deal could be opposed by the European Commission – which could mean a case being brought against France in the EU’s top court.
He said it could also be challenged by individuals in the UK. One possible avenue would be for a returnee to question why they have been singled out given that only a fraction of those arriving will be returned.
‘I can imagine someone is going to try it,’ Professor Peers told the Mail.
A charity which helped block the Tories’ Rwanda scheme warned Labour it would do the same with the new French deal.
A Care4Calais spokesman said: ‘Care4Calais initiated legal challenges against the last Government’s Rwanda policy and their attempts to introduce ‘pushbacks’ in the Channel – and we won.
A group of migrants on an inflatable dinghy leave the coast of northern France in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain, from the beach of Petit-Fort-Philippe in Gravelines, near Calais, France, July 2, 2025
Mr Macron (pictured with Starmer) hailed the plan as ‘collaborative, co-operative and comprehensive’
‘We will consider all options open to us to oppose any plans that will put more lives at risk and involve governments trading humans.’
Fizza Qureshi, chief executive of the Migrants’ Rights Network, said the group ‘stands against this deal in its entirety’ and ‘looks forward to supporting those at risk of deportation in challenging removal in the courts’.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union that represents Border Force officers, said delays were likely when selecting those to be returned.
‘The issue is going to be around how you identify that individual and any legal challenge that flows from that. The legal challenge that arises from it could take a year,’ she told the BBC.
One Home Office insider told the Mail: ‘One of the things that is most likely to scupper this is the modern slavery laws here. These are really likely to screw them up.
‘The threshold for making a modern slavery claim is absurdly low – thanks to Theresa May, who brought in these laws – and someone only has to have a story that sounds plausible to get their entire case put on hold. That means they can’t be deported while it’s being considered.’
The Home Office received a record 19,122 modern slavery claims last year – up 13 per cent on 2023 – and cases are taking an average of more than two years to reach a conclusion.
