UK and France extend talks over new small boats deal
📖 Full Retelling
A three-year deal to pay for more French patrols to intercept smuggling gangs was due to expire at midnight.
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
UK and France extend talks over new small boats deal 15 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Brian Wheeler , Political reporter and Joe Pike , Political correspondent 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". But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour don't have the backbone to get a deal over the line. "They are now going to pay £2m a week for continued failure. "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." 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-Franc...
Read full article at source