The official watchdog has spilled the beans on Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ deal
Labour hoped the France deal would deter migrants (Image: Getty)
France refused to take back up to half of the migrants Britain wanted to boot out under Keir Starmer’s one-in-one-out deal, it emerged today. The former Prime Minister insisted the deal would help end small boat crossings, when it was announced in 2025. But France simply refused to accept many of the cross-Channel migrants that were supposed to be returned to its territory, according to a scathing watchdog report.
The scale of the failure was laid bare by John Tuckett, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. He said Paris hid behind data protection diktats to avoid handing immigration officials the reasons for refusals – which meant the Home Office wasted time trying to return migrants that France would eventually reject.
The arrangement ended in October because France refused to sign a new agreement, insisting instead that Downing Street should sign a pact with the EU as a whole.
Mr Tuckett said: “The criteria and basis on which the French authorities accepted or rejected individuals referred under the OUT route were not transparent to UK caseworkers.
“The Agreement requires regular reporting from France on reasons for refusal, but this is anonymised, given various legal restrictions on sharing personal data for the purposes of the Agreement.
“This limited the ability of Home Office officials to manage and improve the process. This is the critical rate-determining step for the OUT route and comes towards the end of the process.
“Further clarity in this area would avoid nugatory effort and resources being spent in preparing cohorts where the refusal rate has been as high as 50%.”
Some 1,631 migrants were returned under the scheme, while Britain accepted 1,496.
Officials privately hoped to remove 100 people a week by May. But the Home Office never hit this number.
Mr Tuckett said: “A ‘roadmap to 100’ delivery plan started in February 2026 anticipated 100 returns per week from mid-May, sustaining that number for four weeks.
“In early May 2026, the ramp-up to two charter return flights per week was running approximately two weeks behind schedule, and the pilot had not yet achieved its 100 returns per week target, nor sustained that level for any period.”
The inspector’s bombshell report comes after 21 people successfully crossed the Channel without being intercepted, reaching the Kent coast.
It is the third this year, prompting renewed fears over Britain’s border security.
The cohort arrived at Samphire Hoe, Kent, and were met by officers.
Shabana Mahmood hoped for more from the France deal (Image: Getty)
Mr Tuckett’s comments confirm allegations made by a senior whistleblower in an exclusive investigation by the Daily Express in May.
A source told us: “At this stage, we would want to be returning 200 a week.”
Referring to Operation Hillmore, the official name of the “one in, one out” deal, the source said: “We are returning 30. We can only detain 75 new arrivals. So, if we are only removing 30 people, Operation Hillmore isn’t a deterrent.
“We need more resources. Detention spaces, charter aircraft spaces to get people out and more cooperation with the French, but they are their own sovereign nation.
“They don’t want these people there, even if Britain pays them for it.
“There’s no reason to believe overall flows of migration will be any lower than they have been in the previous years. I just don’t think they realised what the blockages were.
“They weren’t listening to the staff who were telling them.”