France humiliates Mahmood by rejecting her multi-million pound small boat plan

Britain’s proposal to send its own vessels into French waters to turn back migrant boats has reportedly been flatly rejected by Paris — dealt a blow that has deepened the deadlock over a new Channel patrol deal.

Shabana Mahmood had put the plan on the table as negotiations over replacing the expired multimillion-pound border agreement ground to a halt. Without a new deal, officials on both sides have warned that crossings could accelerate sharply over the coming months as summer approaches.

The Express understands the scheme would have seen ships from Britain’s Border Security Command fleet — including six 42-metre cutters and five commercial transfer vessels — move into French territorial waters to intercept migrant dinghies and ferry those on board back to the northern French coast. Inflatable patrol craft would have supplemented the larger vessels, it has been reported.

It was an extension of the model already operating in British waters, where Border Force picks up migrants from unseaworthy craft once they cross into UK jurisdiction — a practice driven by the need to stop people drowning rather than any legal obligation to take them in.

French sovereignty killed the idea. Officials on the Paris side of the table made clear that foreign government ships entering their territorial waters was something they would never agree to, regardless of the operational logic.

What leaked and what was denied

According to The Times, the details first appeared in Le Canard Enchaîné, the French satirical weekly, which also shed light on other aspects of the previous arrangement. Among its alleged disclosures: British funding was used to buy a hundred patrol vehicles for the gendarmerie in Pas de Calais — vehicles that now account for a quarter of the entire fleet the force has available in that region. That contract formed part of the three-year deal that lapsed at the end of last month.

The Home Office is reported to have pushed back on other claims in the same report. It denied that Mahmood had set a target of 75 per cent of crossing attempts being intercepted, and rejected the suggestion that British taxpayers had been billed close to £20 million by an elite French police unit for the purchase of a helicopter.

The numbers behind the stalemate

Mahmood is said to want a substantially higher interception rate written into any new agreement — the current figure of 33 per cent is a baseline she considers unacceptable, though the precise target she is seeking has not been disclosed.

The statistics bear out her frustration. Home Office data shows that fewer than one in three attempted crossings was stopped this year — with 2,064 out of 6,233 attempts halted, the lowest proportion since records began. That figure has hardened into the central battleground of the negotiations.

Britain is also pushing for a significant expansion of the 700-strong French police presence on the beaches, while drawing the line at French requests that could prove far more costly. Paris has asked London to pick up the tab for staffing a new migrant holding facility in Dunkirk and to bankroll barracks for riot police and reservists deployed along the coastline. Both demands have been turned down.

The stopgap

With a long-term deal out of reach, the two governments agreed to keep the existing framework running for another two months.

The bridging arrangement costs British taxpayers £16.5 million and buys time until the end of next month — a fraction of the £475 million committed under the previous three-year contract — while negotiators attempt to find a way through.

Wednesday’s crossings pushed the year’s running total past 5,000. Settled seas and rising temperatures have created ideal conditions for smuggling gangs, and the numbers are unlikely to fall while the political impasse continues.