Starmer's ‘one in, one out' Channel migrant deal under threat after EU row

Telegraph

07-07-2025

Sir Keir Starmer's hopes of announcing a 'one-in, one-out' Channel migrant returns deal with France this week are under threat after objections by other EU countries.
The Prime Minister had planned to use a summit with Emmanuel Macron this week to sign a new deal with France, which would have allowed the Government to return some of the migrants crossing the Channel illegally.
However, Downing Street is yet to agree the returns deal, just days before the initiative is due to be announced as a centrepiece of the state visit by the French president from Tuesday to Thursday.
Government sources said the talks to finalise the deal were 'complex' and 'in the balance' after an intervention by Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus in which they expressed 'serious concerns' over the implications for southern EU states.
The UK and France have been negotiating an agreement where the French would take back migrants who have illegally crossed the Channel in small boats, while the UK accepts a similar number of asylum seekers from France.
This so-called 'one-in, one-out' agreement is an attempt to break the business model of the people-smuggling gangs by showing that migrants will be returned to France once they reach UK shores.
A record 20,600 migrants have crossed the Channel so far in 2025 alone, up around 50 per cent on the total at the same point last year and the biggest number in the first six months since the first arrivals in 2018. Nearly 44,000 migrants have arrived since Labour came into power in July last year.
Last month the five southern states wrote to the European Commission expressing concern that the one-in, one-out deal could mean they would face an influx of deported migrants. Under the EU's Dublin agreement, migrants can be sent back to the EU country where they first landed.
'We take note – with a degree of surprise – of the reported intention of France to sign a bilateral readmission arrangement,' their letter read.
'If confirmed, such an initiative raises serious concerns for us, both procedurally and in terms of potential implications for other member states, particularly those of first entry.
'We believe it is essential to clarify whether the agreement may produce any direct or indirect consequences for other member states.'
The European Commission has asked for clarification on the agreement from Paris and London in order to reassure the five southern nations.
Sources said, however, that it was minded to be helpful as the EU and the UK pledged to work on 'practical and innovative approaches' to reduce irregular migration as part of the 'reset' agreement signed in May.
Brussels needs to check it out to see if it meets the spirit and letter of EU law. 'We are in contact with the French and the UK authorities to ensure the necessary clarifications are made,' a European Commission spokesman said.
France had been hoping to set out its support for the deal last week but delayed the briefing after the European Commission's intervention. Sources said the talks on the deal were still 'work in progress' and it was unclear if they would be concluded in time for an announcement at the end of the summit on Thursday.
'Another humiliation for the PM'
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'Yet again, it looks like we are gearing up for another international humiliation for the PM.
'If he can't even get a scheme where we pay the French half a billion pounds to wave the boats off from Calais for a migrant merry-go-round where the same number still come here, what hope do we have.
'He needs to get a grip. Unless all those arriving by small boat are sent back to France, we won't stop the crossings.'
Sir Keir and Mr Macron are, however, expected to confirm a new maritime protocol at the summit where French border police intercept migrant 'taxi boats' at sea for the first time after previously refusing to do so for fear of breaching maritime safety laws.
The French have been testing tactics including cutting the rubber of a migrant dinghy in shallow water. The policy change will see elite French police officers authorised to stop boats within 300 metres of shore.
It will be the first State Visit hosted at Windsor Castle in more than a decade and the first of the King Charles's reign. The last was in 2014, when president Michael D. Higgins and his wife made the first Irish State Visit to Britain in history.
A state banquet on Tuesday will see the King and president Macron both deliver speeches, which customarily praise their respective countries and speak of the past relationship and the future.
The French president will also visit the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, where he will address parliamentarians in the Royal Gallery and meet opposition leaders at Lancaster House.
On Wednesday, the president and wife Brigitte Macron will join Sir Keir and Lady Starmer for lunch at Downing Street, ahead of a UK-France summit at Number 10 on Thursday.