Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s new immigration scheme will allows Britain to return small boat arrivals to France, provided the UK accepts the same number of vetted asylum seekers with connections to Britain – but will it work? Dubbed the “one in, one out” plan, the pilot agreement was signed with President Emmanuel Macron during the French state visit last month.
Under the deal, up to 50 people a week who arrive illegally via the Channel could be returned to France. In exchange, the UK will admit 50 legal migrants under a new humanitarian route. The Government says the plan is a “realistic, workable” way to tackle dangerous crossings, in contrast to the previous Rwanda scheme, which was scrapped due to legal and logistical setbacks.
A group of people understood to be migrants at Dover (Image: Getty)
The new policy comes as the number of small boat crossings so far this year has exceeded 25,000, putting 2025 on track to set a new annual record. Immigration remains one of the top issues for UK voters.
Critics, however, claim the numbers involved in the deal are too small to have a meaningful impact – especially given that over 800 people are arriving each week.
Refugee charities have also raised concerns about fairness, legality, and the lack of safe, open routes.
The Government says if the pilot is successful, the agreement could be expanded.
Disaster for Keir Starmer as tens of thousands demand general election now in new petition
Sir Keir Starmer could be getting hot under the collar as a petition calling for “an immediate General Election” has hit nearly 60,000 signatures. The vote on the UK Government and Parliament’s own petition portal asks for people to sign if they feel they would agree with the statement “we want an immediate General Election to be held. We think the majority need and want change”.
Under rules for petitions submitted to Parliament, the Government will respond to any which receive more than 10,000 signatures, meaning this latest appeal has reached the threshold. Once a petition reaches 100,000 signatures the website states it earns the right to “be considered for debate in Parliament”. At the time of writing, more than 57,000 people have put their name to the call for another General Election, just over a year since Labour came to power on July 4, 2024. It will make grim reading for the Prime Minister whose administration has been dogged by major issues including failing to address the ongoing migrant crisis, as well as performing embarrassing U-turns on unpopular financial decrees such as withdrawing winter fuel payments for pensioners.
The PM could be getting hot under the collar over this latest petition (Image: PA )
A petition calling for an ‘immediate election’ has been gaining thousands of votes online (Image: PA )
It’s not the first time Sir Keir has faced cries to call another election. In January MPs debated another petition with called for a re-run of the contest after it reached 2.8 million signatures.
The petition did not trigger another national election buy Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch taunted the PM during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons. She said it showed “two million people asking him to go”.
Sir Keir responded by saying the election result on July 4 last year as a “massive petition” in itself.
During the contest Labour won 412 seats at the ballot box, compared to 121 for the Tories. But Sir Keir’s party only managed to secure 33.7% of the vote share, only marginally more than the 32.2% acheived by Jeremy Corbyn in his disastrous 2019 election campaign and far less than the 45% acheived by Tony Blair for his Labour victory in 1997.
Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria vote in the General Election last year (Image: PA )
Labour have also faced increasing pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party which won an unprecedented 14.3% of the vote share last year, gaining six MPs in the Commons.
The number has since risen to seven after a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in May, which was triggered after Labour MP Mike Amesbury was filmed punching a man in his constituency.
