Keir Starmer's 'pathetic' plan to send small boat migrants back to France 'to be blocked'

Campaigners have threatened to block Sir Keir Starmer's "pathetic" plan to send migrants arriving on small boats back to France. Migrants' Rights Network Chief Executive Fizza Qureshi said the charity stands against the deal between London and Paris and looks forward to supporting those at risk of deportation in challenging their removal in the courts.

Care4Calais, which helped block the last government's Rwanda scheme, warned it would consider all options available to the campaign group to oppose any plans which would put more lives at risk and see governments trading humans. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has warned the "pathetic" arrangement may be sunk by legal challenges from "activist" lawyers and "irresponsible" charities that want to facilitate illegal immigration into Britain.

He told the Mail: "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."

Mr Philp said the Rwanda scheme to relocate some asylum seekers to the African country to have their claims processed would have led to all illegal immigrants removed without interference from judges.

The Conservative MP said the small boat arrivals would have stopped, but Sir Keir was too "weak" and "mentally enslaved" by his human rights lawyer friends to do what was necessary to protect Britain's borders.

Under the terms of the deal agreed by the Prime Minister and French President Emmanuel Macron, the UK will for the first time be able to send migrants back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain.

The so-called "one in, one out" deal is due to begin in weeks on a pilot basis, but needs final legal verification from the EU.

Downing Street has indicated ministers expect Brussels to support the arrangement, amid concerns among some European governments that migrants who have travelled to Britain could end up back in their countries.

No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the pilot, but French officials had indicated it could initially be limited to about 50 a week, a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782.

A spokesman for the European 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."

He added: "What we have now is an announcement and a political agreement, in principle, to have a pilot agreement.

"Once we know more about the substance and the form of that, we can tell you more about it."

Asked whether the Government was concerned about the scheme being held up in the courts, a Number 10 spokesman said: "We've done a lot of work to make sure the system is robust to legal challenges, and of course, France is a safe country and a member of the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights).

"We're confident that this arrangement complies with both domestic and international law, and clearly... we've discussed these arrangements already with the Commission."

Meanwhile, 353 migrants crossed the English Channel on Friday (July 11), according to Home Office figures. This was down from the 573 people who crossed on Thursday, the first time any such journeys were made in a week.

More crossings were witnessed on Saturday, but the full figures have yet to be published.

At least 21,000 people have made the perilous journey since January, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for crossings.