Britain's £500m small boats deal with France 'under review' weeks after Rwanda scheme axed
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has reportedly asked for the £500m agreement struck between Britain and France to be reviewed over concerns it isn't proving effective.
The Labour government has reportedly ordered a review of Britain's deal with France to prevent beach launches of small boats to the UK.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has asked for the £500million agreement struck between former PM Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron to be reviewed over fears that it isn't proving effective, The Sun reports.
More than 1,500 migrants crossed the Channel this week, with 12 tragically dying when their boat capsized while making the perilous journey.
The reported review comes after Labour scrapped the previous Tory government's Rwanda migrant scheme shortly after coming to power in July, as well as plans to use the Bibby Stockholm barge to house up to 500 asylum seekers off the Dorset coast.
Under the terms of the agreement, Britain is set to pay France £161m this year and £176m next year for police in France to stop boats in France before they can set off.
The payment is also supposed to include the construction of a detention centre in northern France.
A Labour source told the outlet on Friday: “We inherited all kinds of commitments from the Tories, including £700million for a completely ridiculous scheme in Rwanda.
“We’re looking at all sorts of projects and costs across government. This includes the half a billion the last government committed to spending in France."
During the election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer said: “All the reports I’ve seen on that initiative show that it’s not proving effective, and I think that’s shown by the numbers that we’re seeing — record numbers.”
This week a senior figure in the German asylum system said that his country and the wider EU may now use the bespoke facilities built in Rwanda and funded by UK taxpayers for its own deportation plans - sparking fury among Tory figures supportive of the abdandoned scheme.
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Joachim Stamp, Germany's Special Representative for Migration Agreements, said: “We currently have no third country that has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda”.
Sir Keir and the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper met with Cabinet colleagues and intelligence officers on Friday for a summit on plans to smash smuggling gangs, which the PM previously said was a more effective approach than the supposed deterrence flights to Rwanda posed.
He revealed he had spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Mr Macron, saying: “I think we’re beginning to make some real progress.”
Ms Cooper said significant seizures of boats and equipment had been carried out in France over the past two months to help prevent boats from leaving the southern part of the channel.
