Labour’s flagship “one in, one out” migrant deal with France has been brought to an end little more than a year after it came into force, after failing to operate on anything like the scale ministers had hoped.
The Home Office confirmed on Wednesday that the agreement is no longer accepting new cases, after France declined to continue the bilateral arrangement beyond its expiry on October 1.
Britain had been prepared to continue the scheme, according to reports, but Paris has instead pushed for any future returns arrangement to be negotiated between the UK and the European Union as a whole.
The collapse leaves Labour searching for yet another answer to the Channel crisis, after a scheme once presented as an important new deterrent managed to return only a small fraction of those arriving by small boat.
Under the agreement, migrants who reached Britain in small boats could be detained and returned to France. In exchange, the UK agreed to admit an equivalent number of people from France through a legal route, subject to eligibility, identity and security checks.
The agreement came into force on August 6, 2025. The Government said at the time it would demonstrate that entering Britain illegally by small boat was “not a viable route to remain in the country”.
That ambition has now collided with reality.
Around 1,500 migrants have ultimately been returned to France, according to the latest figures reported as the scheme closes, while slightly fewer people have been brought legally into Britain from France under the reciprocal arrangement.
The last detailed official Home Office statistics, covering the period to June 30, recorded 1,087 returns to France and 1,117 transfers into Britain.
During precisely the same period, 27,920 migrants arrived in Britain by small boat, meaning returns under the agreement were equivalent to only around four per cent of Channel arrivals.
And it did not come cheaply.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted to MPs last month that the cost to the taxpayer was around £56,000 for every migrant returned to France.
Questioned by the Home Affairs Committee on whether the programme had succeeded, Mrs Mahmood argued that it had proved such a returns arrangement could operate, but conceded that the numbers remained “relatively small” and that scaling up removals had proved operationally difficult for both Britain and France.
She also acknowledged constraints including detention capacity.
The extraordinary price tag means that, at approximately 1,500 returns, the implied cost is in the region of £84 million, although the Home Secretary said she would write to the committee with the most recent figures and the precise final total has not yet been officially published.
For all that expenditure, Britain was simultaneously accepting roughly one person from France for every person sent back.
France has now decided it does not want the arrangement to continue.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had previously made clear that Paris did not believe France should shoulder responsibility for a bilateral returns scheme indefinitely, arguing instead for a wider agreement between Britain and the EU.
So much for Labour’s much-trumpeted new era of European cooperation.
After spending tens of millions of pounds on a scheme dependent upon French cooperation, Britain finds itself back at the negotiating table because France has decided it would rather pass the issue upwards to Brussels.
The Home Office insists cooperation with France will continue in other areas and points to a significant fall in Channel crossings this year compared with 2025.
The Government has also funded expanded French enforcement operations. An agreement announced in April increased personnel and technological and intelligence resources, while the Border Security Command says UK-French cooperation prevented more than 20,000 attempted crossings during 2025-26.
Those figures deserve recognition, but they also underline the peculiar nature of Britain’s continuing dependence on its neighbour to police departures from the French coast.
The British taxpayer funds enforcement in France, Britain negotiated an expensive reciprocal returns scheme with France, and now France has decided that particular scheme should end.
Meanwhile, the boats have not stopped.
Official Home Office data continues to record thousands of people reaching Britain in small boats during 2026, even though arrivals are substantially lower than during the equivalent period last year.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the end of the scheme as another humiliation for the Government, arguing that Labour had failed to establish a sufficiently strong deterrent to prevent people attempting the crossing.
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf also attacked the arrangement, describing it as a gimmick and arguing that Britain should take much tougher unilateral action to secure the Channel.
The Government, however, insists it has made progress.
A Home Office spokesman said Britain would continue working with France to tackle small-boat crossings, while removals involving people already being processed under the agreement will continue over the coming weeks.
Ministers have also established a new Small Boats Returns Taskforce, which the Government says will use lessons from the French pilot to accelerate the removal of people arriving by small boat who have no right to remain in Britain.
But Labour is left with an uncomfortable question.
If the “one in, one out” deal was supposed to demonstrate to migrants and people-smuggling gangs that an illegal journey across the Channel could result in swift removal, what deterrent was created when only around one person was returned for every 25 who arrived during the period covered by the Government’s detailed figures?
And after a scheme costing around £56,000 for every person sent back, Britain is once again dependent upon negotiations with its European neighbours for whatever comes next.
The “one in, one out” experiment was supposed to be a new model for controlling the Channel.
Fourteen months later, France has pulled the plug, Labour has stopped accepting new cases, and Britain’s search for an effective deterrent begins all over again.
