Yvette Cooper fails four times to answer if small boat deportations will start this month
On Tuesday morning, the Home Secretary was repeatedly unable to give a guarantee that the first returns would take place in August.
A new 'one-in, one-out' migrant returns treaty between the two countries has now been ratified, allowing migrants to be detained and earmarked for removal.
Ms Cooper said the first detentions would take place 'in a matter of days' and she wanted to see the first returns 'in a matter of weeks'.
But she could not commit to a firm timetable as she also refused to set a target number for removals.
'But you're unable to say August?'
The UK-France migration deal comes into force today. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wants to see returns 'in a matter of weeks', but refuses to confirm for @NickFerrariLBC if that means this month. pic.twitter.com/df13Vw3DpG
— LBC (@LBC) August 5, 2025
The deal with France will mean that people arriving in the UK on a small boat can be detained on arrival and then returned across the Channel.
It is thought approximately 50 migrants will be returned to France each week once the scheme is fully operational. Ministers hope numbers will climb by the end of the year.
The 'one-in, one-out' deal means a similar number of asylum seekers in France with family connections to the UK will be accepted by Britain.
The roll-out of the scheme comes as Sir Keir Starmer continues to face public anger over mass migration, with ongoing protests outside asylum hotels.
Ms Cooper was asked repeatedly during an interview on LBC on Tuesday morning when the first migrant returns will take place.
She said: 'The first detentions we want to take place in a matter of days and then we will be referring those cases immediately to France.
'There are then processes that we need to work through and we are ready to resist any legal challenge that comes forward as well.
'But we do want to see returns taking place in a matter of weeks. But we will need to work those processes through.'
Asked if returns would start in August, Ms Cooper said: 'Again, we need to work those processes through but we want to see the returns themselves take place as swiftly as possible.'
Pushed again to give a commitment to August, the Cabinet minister said: 'Bear in mind people will be detained until they are returned.'
Told that she appeared unable to commit to returns starting in August, Ms Cooper said: 'Well, as I have said, we want this to be in a matter of weeks. Some of those cases we hope will be able to take place very quickly. In other cases we are ready to resist legal challenges which we have seen take place before.'
The Government's deal with France will likely mean that about 800 people will be taken back across the Channel by the end of the year.
That would be just a fraction of the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived on small boats since Labour took office in July last year.
Ministers have argued the scheme will finally establish the principle that people can be sent back to France if they arrive in the UK illegally.
They have also presented the scheme as being part of a wider package of measures designed to curb the crossings, insisting there is no single silver bullet to tackle the crisis.
Ms Cooper refused to set a target number for returns, claiming that such information could benefit the smuggling gangs.
The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are a couple of things here. First of all we are not putting an overall figure on this programme.
'Of course it will start with lower numbers and then build but we want to be able to expand it. We want to increase the number of people returned through this programme.
'But the reason for not setting out how many people it will be in a particular week or how many people on a particular day is because we know the criminal gangs will use this information, just like they use every other bit of information, in order to twist it, in order distort it and in order to make money.
'They will use it to plan when they send boats across. They will use it to drive the information, the advertising and the information that they use.'
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