Migrants in French camps rise before dawn to risk their lives on seas and close their eyes at sound of gunshots'

THE sniping began before the ink was dry on Sir Keir Starmer's "groundbreaking" deal to return small boat migrants to France.

- ZAK GARNER-PURKIS

Standing beside his opposite number in No10 Downing Street as they announced the "one in, one out" agreement, French president Emmanuel Macron chose to lecture the British people about why this was all actually their mistake.

He said: "Many people explained that Brexit would make it more possible to fight effectively against illegal migration.

"But since Brexit, the UK has no illegal migration agreement with the EU. That creates an incentive to make the crossing - the precise opposite of what Brexit promised.

"The British people were sold a lie, which was that [migration] was a problem with Europe. With your Government, we're pragmatic, and for the first time in nine years we are providing a response." Unsurprisingly, Reform UK leader and passionate Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage saw it differently.

He described the new arrangement, which involves opening more channels for safe and legal routes to Britain, as evidence the country was slipping back into unofficial membership of the European Union.

He said: "[It's] humiliation for Brexit Britain. We have acted today as an EU member and bowed down to an arrogant French president." Sir Keir talked tough, calling the deal "unprecedented" and focusing on the headline-grabbing pilot scheme it included which will see migrants who had made the treacherous journey across the Channel return to France.

It means some arrivals would be sent back to France and in return, the UK would accept an equivalent number of security checked asylum seekers.

According to reports, it will affect only around 50 people a week...a mere 6% of the total coming to Britain by small boat.

Nevertheless, Macron told the media he hoped it would have a "deterrent effect".

The trouble is, in the makeshift latrines and rain-soaked tents of northern France's migrant camps, even the most "groundbreaking" deterrents rarely have an impact.