When Keir Starmer stood alongside the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at Northwood military base last July and announced a “groundbreaking” treaty to stop small boats overfilled with migrants from crossing the Channel, he said there was no “silver bullet”. But, he added, the plan would “finally turn the tables” on the numbers making the crossing.
The initiative, known as “one in, one out”, means each small boat arrival can be forcibly returned to France in exchange for another person – who has not attempted the crossing – being brought to the UK legally.
