What is the UK-France migrant returns deal, who will be returned and how many?

Published

2 months ago

August 6, 2025

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A new UK-France migrant returns deal has come into force in a bid to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the “one in, one out” agreement on 10 July after months of talks, and it has since been approved by the European Commission.

Here is what we know about the deal so far.

What is the basic agreement?

The UK will be able to send migrants who enter the UK on small boats back to France.

For each one returned, the UK will allow an asylum seeker to enter through a safe and legal route – as long as they have not previously tried to enter illegally.

This is a pilot scheme for now, which will be in place until June 2026. A joint committee has been set up to review it on a monthly basis pending a decision on its long-term future.

When will it begin?

The agreement came into force on 5 August, having been signed by both countries and approved by the European Commission.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News anyone arriving in the UK by small boat after this date can be detained “immediately upon arrival”.

The process of then transferring them to France will take up to three months, according to the treaty.

Who will be returned?

The scheme applies to adults or accompanied minors who have arrived by small boat via France.

There have been no details released on how the government will select who is returned out of this cohort – as it will only apply to a small fraction of arrivals – but the treaty notes some cases in which migrants will be ineligible for deportation.

This includes if someone has an outstanding human rights claim, outstanding suspensive judicial remedies or an injunction or court order that prevents their transfer.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has rejected accusations from the Tories that these are “easy loopholes” for lawyers to exploit, telling Sky News: “That’s not the case at all. The deal that we’ve struck will allow us to send people back to France who have human rights claims. Those claims will be heard in France.”

How many will be returned?

No numbers have been mentioned as part of the scheme, but there are reports around 50 people a week will ultimately be returned to France.

Since the start of March, an average of more than 1,000 people have arrived in small boats every week. Sending 50 of them back would represent less than 5% of that total.

Home Secretary Ms Cooper has admitted the scheme will start small as it is just a pilot at this stage, but says the hope is that it can be expanded.

She has declined to give a figure, saying people smuggling gangs would then operate their networks around that information.

Is the deal set in stone?

The treaty will remain in force until June 2026. Both countries will continually review the scheme over the next year, pending a decision on the long-term future of the arrangements.

Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, said the agreement “establishes an experimental mechanism whose goal is clear: to smash the gangs”, adding that it marked the “first stage” of efforts by the whole of the European Union sparked by the UK-EU summit in London in May.

Who will be accepted into the UK?

As part of the deal, the UK has agreed to provide a voluntary application route for entry from France. Those wanting to come will have to submit an Expression of Interest application to the Home Office.

They will need to establish their identity and nationality and will be subject to strict security and eligibility checks before a decision is made.

How much is it costing?

The UK will pay the full cost of transporting migrants in both directions under the terms of the treaty. The government has not put a figure on how much this could cost.

This is on top of the hundreds of millions the UK has given to France to police the Calais coast.

What have the French said?

Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, said the agreement “establishes an experimental mechanism whose goal is clear: to smash the gangs”.

He added that it marked the “first stage” of efforts by the whole of the European Union sparked by the UK-EU summit in London in May.

What else is being done?

Mr Macron has repeatedly said the UK needs to address “pull factors”, such as illegal working.

The Home Office has said authorities will soon undertake “a major nationwide blitz targeting illegal working hotspots, focusing on the gig economy and migrants working as delivery riders”.

Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat have already committed to ramp up facial verification and fraud checks in the coming months after ministers called in bosses for talks.

The government has also introduced eVisas for people in the UK on a visa to make it easy to identify those who are in the UK legally.

For the first time, France has also agreed to allow police officers to enter the water from the beaches in northern France to try to stop the boats from leaving.

Over the past two weeks, they have been filmed slashing the rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) the people smugglers load up with migrants.

The British government, which is helping to fund the French police’s efforts, is pushing France to go further and let officers intervene against boats in deeper waters.

Politics

‘Make or break’: Chancellor warned businesses can’t take more tax hikes in budget

Published

10 hours ago

October 14, 2025

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'Make or break': Chancellor warned businesses can't take more tax hikes in budget

Rachel Reeves has been warned that firms face a “make-or-break moment” at next month’s budget.

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) urged the chancellor, who is widely expected to announce tax hikes in November’s budget to fill a gap in the public finances, to steer clear of increasing levies on businesses.

Ms Reeves raised taxes by £40bn last year and the BCC said business confidence had not recovered since.

“Last year’s budget took the wind from their sails, and they have been struggling to find momentum ever since,” BCC director-general Shevaun Haviland said.

She said firms felt “drained” and could not plan ahead as they expected “further tax demands to be laid at their feet” when the budget is delivered on 26 November.

“The chancellor must seize this moment and use her budget to deliver a pro-growth agenda that can restore optimism and belief amongst business leaders,” Ms Haviland added.

“This year’s budget will be a make-or-break moment for many firms.”

The BCC also called for a reform of business rates and the removal of the windfall tax on gas and oil introduced by the last government.

In its submission, the industry body outlined more than 60 recommendations, including the proposal of further infrastructure investment, cuts to customs barriers and action on skill shortages.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced Labour would aim to approve 150 major infrastructure projects by the next election, with Labour already pledging to support expansions of both Heathrow and Gatwick airports – another of the BCC’s requests.

While the Treasury would not comment on budget speculation, a spokesperson insisted Ms Reeves would “strike the right balance” between ensuring funding for public services and securing economic growth.

She has vowed to stick to Labour’s manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on “working people”.

Household spending on the wane

The BCC’s plea to halt further tax rises on businesses comes as retail sales growth slowed in September.

“With the budget looming large, and households facing higher bills, retail spending rose more slowly than in recent months,” Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said.

“Rising inflation and a potentially taxing budget is weighing on the minds of many households planning their Christmas spending.”

Total retail sales in the UK increased by 2.3% year-on-year in September, against growth of 2% in September 2024 and above the 12-month average growth of 2.1%, according to BRC and KPMG data.

While food sales were up by 4.3% year-on-year, this was largely driven by inflation rather than volume growth.

Non-food sales growth slowed to 0.7% against the growth of 1.7% last September, making it below the 12-month average growth of 0.9%.

Online non-food sales only increased by 1% against last September’s growth of 3.4%, which was below the 12-month average growth of 1.8%.

“The future of many large anchor stores and thousands of jobs remains in jeopardy while the Treasury keeps the risk of a new business rates surtax on the table,” Ms Dickinson said.

“By exempting these shops when the budget announcements are made, the chancellor can reduce the inflationary pressures hammering businesses and households alike.”

Politics

Starmer and other leaders have fallen into line on Trump’s Gaza plan – now it must deliver

Published

19 hours ago

October 13, 2025

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Starmer and other leaders have fallen into line on Trump's Gaza plan - now it must deliver

I’ve been around a while and seen a lot of the insides of international summits over the years, but this one was truly extraordinary.

Over 20 leaders flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from all over the world – Indonesia, Pakistan, Norway, Canada – to witness the signing of Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Gaza deal signed – as it happened

This historic day was pure theatre for Trump from start to finish. Flying in from Israel, where he had met hostage families and then addressed the Israeli parliament, he arrived a whopping three hours late, keeping a gaggle of world leaders waiting.

We stood around in corridors watching them move from one room to another to hold meetings with each other, presumably to talk about phase two of Trump’s peace deal.

Testimony to the power of Trump

At one point, Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart included France’s Emmanuel Macro. That then somehow morphed into a summit which also brought in the Germans, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar. More chairs kept coming into the room until there was the equivalent of a cabinet table of leaders and advisors sitting in a long line facing each other.

What they were talking about was how each country could help in phase two of the peace effort. Now Trump had, alongside fellow signatories of this deal – Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey – ended the war, could they maintain the peace?

As Starmer put it: “We can’t treat today as historic and let it drop tomorrow.”

But these mini summits in the margins happened by fault rather than design. This day really was designed to bear witness – and offer acknowledgement – to Trump. All of these leaders turned up pretty much in the dark as to what the day held, with his peace summit convened 48 hours earlier.

That they dropped plans to make their way to Egypt is testimony to the power Trump wields.

He was utterly omnipotent. First, there was the greeting ceremony, in which each leader filed in individually for a photo and handshake with him before all returning to the stage for the family photo.

Then, at the signing ceremony, Trump sat with his three fellow signatories as the world leaders stood behind him.

“This took 3,000 years to get to this point. Can you believe it?” Trump said as he signed that deal. “And it’s going to hold up, too. It’s going to hold up.”

Finally, in another giant hall, Trump gave a speech in which he ran through all the leaders who had turned up – praising them or fondly poking a bit of fun at them accordingly, as (most) of them stood behind him.

He teased Macron for sitting in the front row rather than joining the others on the stage, joking it wasn’t like him to be low-key. He described Meloni as a “beautiful young woman”.

“I’m not allowed to say it because usually it’s the end of your political career if you say it – she’s a beautiful young woman,” said Trump mid-speech. “You don’t mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are,” he turned to say to her – her reaction obscured from view.

Now for the ‘easy part’?

Soon after, the prime minister of Pakistan, invited to say a few remarks by Trump, renewed his call for the US president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Having brokered the deal, Trump took the moment and made it into his summit on his terms, as fellow leaders fell into line, literally standing behind him. And in his characteristic bullishness, he told his audience in this final speech that the hard part – the ceasefire – had been done, and rebuilding Gaza was the easy part.

That isn’t really what the rest of them believe: 92% of Gazans have been displaced, the Gaza Strip is a wasteland. Organising a peacekeeping force, getting Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the strip, putting together a technocratic team and peace board to oversee the running of Gaza still needs to be done.

This was a largely celebratory day, but there are concerns whether this deal will hold up. Trump says Hamas needs to disarm and disband, and yet one of their most senior leaders told Sky News a few days ago, it won’t.

Meanwhile, there is a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The UK has in short order sent in £20m of aid to try to help with sanitation.

On the British side, the prime minister said he had offered to help demilitarise the strip, saying the UK can take a role in “monitoring the ceasefire but also decommissioning the capability of Hamas and their weaponry, drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland”.

“It’s really important we keep that focus. We mustn’t have any missteps now,” he said.

Trump’s peace board is still in its infancy – Starmer told me he isn’t going to sit on it, with the make-up still being discussed, while Tony Blair’s participation is controversial.

Trump said on the way over to Egypt that he was going to canvass opinion to make sure everyone is happy with the former prime minister’s presence. It comes after Bassem Naim of Hamas told Sky News that Blair was not welcome in Gaza after his role in the invasion of Iraq.

When I asked Starmer if he thought Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he said “there’ll be plenty of people, I’m sure, nominating him” – as he paid tribute to him for getting “leaders to this position”.

Now the task for them all is to implement what Trump has set in train. If his plan works, he would be sitting on an achievement that has eluded successive US presidents for decades.

Trump should rightly be lauded for ending the war, now he must bring the peace.