UK and France extend talks over new small boats deal. 9 hours ago. Brian Wheeler,Political reporterand. Joe Pike,Political correspondent. PA Media. The UK is to pay France £16.2m to patrol beaches for the next two months, as the two sides continue to hammer out a new deal to intercept small boats attempting to cross the English Channel.. Under a three-year agreement signed in 2023, the UK has paid £476m to France for extra patrols to disrupt migrant smuggling gangs.. That agreement had been due to expire at midnight – but talks to renew it have been extended by two months, as the UK pushes for more enforcement officers to be deployed by the French authorities.. UK sources claimed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was “driving a hard bargain to deliver a better deal for the British people,” adding: “We need more bang for our buck”.. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour were paying France for “continued failure”.. He added: “We shouldn’t pay the French a penny until they agree to substantially increase their prevention rate and start intercepting at sea by force – as they promised last summer.”. Liberal Democrats immigration and asylum spokesperson Will Forster MP said “blowing up our international partnerships is never going to fix the problems in our immigration and asylum system”.. “The only way to properly deter people from making these dangerous crossings and to break the criminal gangs’ business model for good is to agree a large-scale returns agreement with France,” he said.. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform leader Nigel Farage have both said UK needs to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to stop small boat crossings.. Speaking on Tuesday, Reform UK Treasury Spokesperson Robert Jenrick said: “You can’t spend hundreds of millions of pounds begging the French to take action” as he called such a move a “complete farce”.. “The UK needs a sovereign deterrent,” he added as he called for the government to “detain and deport every single illegal migrant who comes into our country”.. The French authorities are reported by The Guardian to be concerned that UK demands could put the lives of asylum seekers at greater risk.. Under the current deal, nearly 700 law enforcement officers are on the ground patrolling beaches, using drones and buggies to stop people getting on boats.. The UK government claims the deal has prevented 42,000 illegal migrants getting on boats, although the overall number making the journey across the Channel has continued to increase.. The two month extension to the patrol deal is being backed by £16.2m in UK funding, according to the Home Office.. In a statement, Mahmood said: “Our work with France has stopped 42,000 attempts by illegal migrants to make the journey across the Channel.. “While we finalise a new and improved UK-France deal, French law enforcement operations to stop illegal migrants in France will continue.. “I will do whatever it takes to restore order and c
