David Vance SubstackRead More
I was looking at the UK government’s flagship “one in, one out” migrant returns deal with France and it is becoming a template in how not to run an immigration policy! You will remember how Ministers sold the agreement as a tough new deterrent for people crossing the Channel in small boats. In practice, it has resulted in a trickle of removals that hardly registers against the massive scale of irregular arrivals.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has now admitted that, so far, just 281 migrants have been sent back to France under the scheme, while 350 people have come to the UK through its approved route. That means even on its own terms, the policy is not “one in, one out” but “more in than out”. This is mad stuff, we are literally accepting more in than we send back.
