PA
The Interior Secretary said the new “One, One Out” immigration scheme agreed with France on Thursday is “robust” enough to withstand potential legal challenges.
Yvette Cooper said the European Union was in close contact with the European government, which has expressed concern about the deal, saying it was “very supportive and helpful.”
She told the BBC’s breakfast that the government “has done a lot of work to make sure the system is robust to legal challenges.”
Shadow Interior Secretary Chris Philp explained his plan to return the expected 50 immigrants to France as “gimmicks” in the week.
Ir Kiel Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron signed the contract on Thursday. This will see the UK arrive in France as immigrants arrive in small boats.
The scheme initially operates as a pilot, but when the UK returns for each immigrant, the UK proposes to accept another person who has filed a legal claim in France.
Cooper is not attracted to the number of migrants exchanged under the deal, but it is expected that the pilot will have around 50 people per week.
She said the government will “provide updates” to the numbers as the pilot progresses.
The Interior Secretary said the pilot scheme would involve a plan to target people who work illegally in the UK.
Reuters
“One In, One Out” deal was announced by Ir Kiel and Macron on Thursday afternoon
Asked what happens when migrants returned to France try to cross the channel for the second time, she says they are “back again” and says they’ve been banned from the UK’s asylum system.
Philp dismissed the plan as a “another gimmick” and said that the Labour pledge to “smash the gang” was not working.
He said the Rwanda plan, originally proposed by Boris Johnson, saw “100% of illegal arrivals being removed”, and explained the decision by Ir Kiel to x the plan as a “devastating” mistake.
Cooper said that only four migrants were sent to Rwanda and voluntarily, describing the previous government’s approach to migration as “chaos.”
Since 2018, when numbers were collected, over 170,000 people have arrived in the UK on small boats.
This year’s figures have reached record levels, with nearly 20,000 people arriving in the first six months of 2025.
On Thursday, Macron said the scheme had a “deterrent effect” beyond the number returned, suggesting that Brexit has made it more difficult for the UK to tackle illegal migration.
