Yvette Cooper has refused to say whether she agreed with Emmanuel Macron’s claim that Brexit had made tackling illegal immigration harder.
It comes after the French president said voters were “sold a lie” on Brexit when they were told it would “make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal immigration”.
Unveiling a new one-in-one-out returns agreement with the UK, the French president said that because Brexit left the UK without a returns agreement with the EU: “it creates an incentive to make the crossing, the precise opposite of what Brexit had promised”.
Asked whether Mr Macron had a point about Brexit, the home secretary told Sky News: “I think what I’ve seen happen is that the way that the criminal smuggler gangs operate is that they will weaponise anything that is happening.
“And so what we saw in the run-up to Brexit being implemented was we saw criminal gangs promising people that they had to cross quickly, and they had to pay money to the smuggler gangs quickly in order to be able to cross in time before Brexit happened.
“As soon as Brexit happened, they then said ‘Oh, well, now you’ve got to pay us money, because this means you can’t be returned because the Dublin Agreement isn’t in place’.
“So the thing about the criminal smuggler gangs is whatever arrangements are in place, they will use them in order to make money, but that’s why we have to be fundamentally undermining their model.”
Ms Cooper also declined to say how many migrants would be returned under new arrangements with France, telling Times Radio the figures had not been “fixed”.
“The numbers are not fixed, even for this pilot phase that we are starting now.
“So this will be a programme that we roll out step-by-step, and we will provide updates as we go. But we are going to do this in a steady way.”
Giving a press conference alongside Mr Macron at the Northwood military base in West London, Sir Keir Starmer said the deal to send small boats migrants back to France for the first time was a “breakthrough moment” which would “turn the tables” on people smugglers.
The pair hope the deal will have a deterrent effect beyond the limited numbers involved in the pilot scheme.
Under the one in, one out deal, for each small boat migrant sent back across the English Channel an asylum seeker will be allowed to enter the UK from France under a legal route.
No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the scheme, but reports from France have indicated it could initially be limited to around 50 a week – a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782.
It is understood numbers will grow over the pilot period and depend on operational factors.
Some 21,117 migrants have made the crossing in 2025 according to the latest Home Office figures, a record for this point in a year, with more attempting the journey on Thursday as the UK and French leaders met.
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