French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed Brexit for the Channel-crossing migrant crisis, claiming the British people had been “sold a lie”.
Macron met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on July 10 to sign a deal on the return and acceptance of migrants, the so-called “one in, one out” pilot scheme,
The French President praised the deal, calling it “ground-breaking” and a “remarkable form of co-operation”.
Both government leaders said it was not useful to start “finger-pointing” and blame each other for the uncontrolled illegal boat crossings of the Channel and stressed it was a shared responsibility to fix the issue.
After talking about the signed deal, though, Macron claimed the British were “sold a lie”, namely that “the problem was Europe”.
He went on to say that people needed to understand that, “since Brexit, and I know it’s not your case Prime Minister [Starmer], many people have explained in your country that Brexit would make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal migration, but it’s in fact since Brexit that the UK has no migration agreement with the EU.”
He said that had actually provided an incentive to migrants to try to make the crossing, exactly the opposite of what Brexiteers promised.
Macron: 'Brexit lies' to blame for migrant crisis
British people have been sold a lie, claims French president, as hundreds of migrants arrive on day Starmer seals ‘one in, one out’ deal pic.twitter.com/qNnWoJYqOE
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 11, 2025
Boat crossings have increased sharply since Britain formally left the European Union, rising from 1,843 people making the journey in 2019 to 28,526 in 2021 and 45,774 in 2022.
So far this year, 21,117 have made the crossing, with more arriving on July 10 as 2025 looks set to be a record year for arrivals, news outlet The Telegraph reported on that day.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Conservative minister for Brexit opportunities, told The i Paper on July 11 that Macron’s claims about Brexit making the small boats crisis worse were “nonsense”.
“Under the Dublin Accord, we took in more people than we sent. Part of the problem now is that the French are cheating the British taxpayer, taking our money while being too frightened to get their feet wet,” he said.
Reform UK leader and arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage criticised both the deal between the UK and France and the remarks by Macron.
He said in a post on X that the deal was “a humiliation”, that the UK behaved as an EU member and he called Macron “arrogant”.
This agreement is a humiliation for Brexit Britain. We have acted today as an EU member and bowed down to an arrogant French President.
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 10, 2025
During the joint press conference with Macron, Starmer took a jab at Farage, saying it was “of some significance” that “whilst we have been working hard to get the returns agreement, others have been simply taking pictures of the problem”.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp focused on the deal and said: “Labour’s deal will only return one in every 17 illegal immigrants arriving.
“Allowing 94 per cent of illegal immigrants to stay will make no difference whatsoever and have no deterrent effect.”
UK officials have declined to confirm exact figures but French authorities said they initially expected up to 50 returns per week. That would amount to around 2,600 a year, or about one in every 17 of the 44,000 who have crossed since Labour took power.
Under the new “one in, one out” agreement, Britain would return some migrants who crossed the Channel in small boats to France, while accepting an equal number of individuals deemed to have legitimate asylum claims in the UK.
But the UK Government said the numbers would rise if the trial was successful and that it would break the business model of people smugglers.
Philp refuted this and said: “Starmer’s first move in power was to rip up the Illegal Migration Act, scrap the Rwanda deterrent plan, weaken age checks and reopen the path to citizenship for illegal migrants.
“This is a green light to people smugglers.”
COMMENT: It is entirely possible that Britain might leave the ECHR after the next election. Will Britain, here too, be an outlier – or will it lead the way? asks @DavidGHFrost. https://t.co/RUqBF66siv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 10, 2025
