£662million France deal fails to improve migrant boat interception rate

21 August 2026 , 15:56

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The French police’s interception rate of illegal migrants has fallen despite a £660million deal with the UK to stop the boats, an analysis of Home Office data has revealed.

While the Labour Government boasts the prevention of small boat crossings has jumped since the bilateral agreement, the interception rate - the share of migrant crossings prevented versus the total number of attempts - has barely moved.

French police revealed today they have prevented 185 small boats from crossing the Channel in the three months since Britain agreed the deal to patrol the beaches, but failed to stop 120 boats from arriving in Britain - an interception rate of 60.7 per cent.

By comparison, in the chillier three months before the deal was signed, French police stopped 131 small boats with 83 slipping through to reach the UK - an interception rate of 61.2 per cent.

Within the 185 boat preventions - equivalent to around two stops a day - some 4,312 migrants were stopped from reaching Britain.

The Gendarmerie’s stops represent a five per cent increase compared to this time last year.

Labour insists the plan to stop the boats is working despite people smugglers using increasingly larger "mega-dinghies" and new tactics, carrying upwards of 160 migrants on several occasions.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood insisted the deal is "already having a real impact, stopping crossings before they happen and disrupting the criminal gangs behind them", adding: "People smugglers should be in no doubt, we’re taking down their operations, seizing their equipment and breaking their business model for good."

But Reform UK’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf fired back, telling GB News: "Shabana Mahmood thinks the British people are stupid.

"The number of migrant boats dodging interception increased by 44 per cent in the three months after Labour agreed to splurge another £662million of taxpayers’ money on a failing scheme, compared with the three months before the deal.

"Thousands of migrants continue, and will continue, to invade our shores unless the Government stops advertising our country as a foodbank for the world.

"Using Operation Fortress, Reform UK will ensure no boat reaches Britain and that every illegal migrant is detained and deported."

British taxpayers forked out £662million for Labour’s deal, which includes a conditional £100million dependent on the French authorities’ success.

Yesterday, shocking new footage released by the Home Office showed wannabe small boat migrants launching a vicious attack on French police as their illegal crossing was stopped.

Life jacket-clad migrants can be seen hurling projectiles at officers to try to keep them away from a large dinghy as it prepares to launch from a beach.

The video captured police then deploying pepper spray to ward off the attackers.

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Upon signing the deal, Ms Mahmood said that the three-year landmark deal would "really arm us to go after the people smugglers".

At least 50 extra police officers were said to be deployed to French shores as part of the agreement, specially trained in "riot and crowd control tactics".

France also vowed to spend millions on boosting their interceptive forces, including hordes of drones, two helicopters as well as a camera system.

But, after a year, £160million could be taken back by the British if the French fail in their bid to stop illegal crossings effectively.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party and Reform UK condemned the deal, arguing that it was necessary to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to bring the crossings to a halt.

At the time, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "The Government’s deal hands over half a billion pounds of our money with no conditions at all.

"France only prevented a third of embarkations last year and even let those illegal immigrants go to try again. France shouldn’t get a single penny unless they stop the vast majority of the boats."

Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said: "It is an abhorrent misuse of taxpayers’ hard-earned money - funding that could instead deliver thousands of new nurses or police officers here in the UK."