Home Office reveals how people will be chosen to come to UK from France under ‘one in, one out’ scheme – as it happened

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

5.21pm BST

Afternoon summary

• The Bank of England has warned that rising food prices could drive inflation to 4% as it voted for a fifth cut in interest rates in a year, amid mounting concerns about the strength of the UK economy.

• Keir Starmer has welcomed the news that the first small boat migrants have been detained prior to potentially being sent back to France under the “one in, one out” returns scheme. (See 9.58am and 10.10am.) And the Home Office has published details of how migrants able to come to the UK under the scheme will be selected. (See 4.59am.)

• Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has suggested that she is open to the idea of raising taxes on the gambling sector to fund the removal of the two-child benefit cap. (See 2.04pm.) The idea is being promoted by Gordon Brown, the former Labour PM, who has also urged Reeves to create extra budget “headroom” by exempting some defence spending from her fiscal rules. (See 9.14am.)

• Amnesty International has warned the Met police against arresting participants protesting this Saturday in London in support of Palestine Action, as the first people were charged for showing support for the banned group.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Updated at 5.24pm BST

4.59pm BST

Home Office reveals how migrants will be chosen to come to UK from France under 'one in, one out' returns scheme

And here is a Home Office paper with further details of what it is calling the UK/European applicant transfer scheme will work.

With the government expected to accept around just 50 migrants per week when the scheme starts, it is expected that only a small proportion of applications will be accepted.

The document says people will be chosen via a three-stage process.

First, they must be from a group with an 80% or higher chance of being granted protection status in the first instance. Judging by asylum claim figures for the year ending March 2025, that would mean they would have to be from Sudan (99% success ragte), Yemen (98%), Syria (98%) or Eritrea (86%). (The figures for Syria have probably changed since the fall of the Assad regime.)

Second, applicants will have to show they have a connection with the UK, defined as having “previously been in the UK with permission for more than 6 months continuously in the last 5 years and have not overstayed or breached the conditions of their permission”.

And, in the third stage, people will be chosen at random out from applicants who have passed the first two stages.

Updated at 5.09pm BST