Labour told to 'stop hiding full cost of failed France migrant deal' after rejecting GB News request

Jack Walters
Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:57:00 +0000

Labour has been told to come clean on the full amount of taxpayers' cash handed over to France after the Home Office rejected a Freedom of Information request from GB News.

The People's Channel last month requested a full breakdown of payments to French authorities and agencies to curb illegal migration since the small boats crisis started in 2018.

The request, which included a breakdown of payments by calendar year, was this week rejected by the Home Office.

"We estimate that the cost of locating and collating any relevant information and extracting the information to meet your request would exceed the appropriate limit of £600 specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004," the Home Office said.

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"We are therefore unable to comply with it. The £600 limit is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 24 hours of work per request.

"The cost of locating, retrieving and extracting information can be included in the costs for these purposes."

The Home Office suggested GB News should refine its request by "narrowing the timescales and reducing the level of precision required".

However, the department stressed it could not "guarantee" a response if GB News adopted the suggested changes in its request.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this week signed a new £662million deal with France to stop illegal migrants crossing the English Channel.

The three-year agreement will see at least 50 riot-trained police officers drafted in to tackle violence and France will finally deport migrants attempting to cross the Channel with a new removals centre.

Ms Mahmood also has the power to pull £100million of UK funding after the first year if France fails to tackle the crisis.

However, GB News last month revealed Ms Mahmood's deal was expected to take the overall payments to France beyond £1.4billion.

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Payments to France have proved controversial, particularly after French police were spotted taking photographs of migrants leaving the shores of the Calais coast.

After the Home Office rejected GB News's request, Reform UK's Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf told GB News: "The Home Office knows exactly how much taxpayers' money has been handed to France for a deal that has failed.

"They know the true cost exceeds an inexcusable £1billion but they fear the backlash from voters at the May elections.

"Labour must stop hiding behind the Whitehall process and start listening to the British public.

"Not a single penny more should be sent to France. Reform UK would demand a refund, and detain and deport all illegal arrivals."

Ex-Immigration Minister Kevin Foster added: "If the Government is happy to boast about how much they will be paying France, they should be as quick to confirm how much they have paid when asked.

"It's nonsense to suggest it would take time to compile this information. They should be open about how much we have paid France, not seek to hide behind process to keep taxpayers in the dark."

The People's Channel had another Freedom of Information request rejected by the Home Office just last month.

After revealing that around 20 local authorities had expressed an interest in housing asylum seekers in revamped council houses, GB News approached the Home Office for a full list.

The department rejected the request on the grounds that it "would or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any persons", sparking accusations of a "cover-up".

Whitehall is now considering a more drastic clampdown on Freedom of Information requests by reducing the £600 ceiling for processing a request.

Transparency campaigners have warned the move risks excluding often important requests.

Shadow Policy Renewal Minister Neil O'Brien told GB News: "Under Labour, the Home Office has become totally appalling at covering up and blocking information.

"Taxpayers should have a right to know where their money is going and whether they are getting value for money, particularly when there is a strong argument that we are paying and getting nothing in return."

A former Home Office official added: "Only a department as useless as the Home Office would be unable to say how much taxpayers' money has been handed to the French.

"It's billions of pounds that we will never get back."

GB News's rejected Freedom of Information request intended to reveal the cost of Labour's "one-in, one-out" deal with France.

The People's Channel recently revealed that the pilot scheme, which is due to expire on June 10, failed to deter small boat migrants crossing the Channel.

More than 22,000 illegal migrants have arrived on British shores since the deal came into force in August 2025.

However, just 482 asylum seekers have been transferred from France to the UK under the pilot scheme, with 498 being returned across the Channel.

Meanwhile, official data compiled by the Home Office states 2,632 out of 8,044 attempted crossings have been stopped in 2026 so far this year, equating to around 32.7 per cent.

The figure is down compared to the 35.1 per cent rate recorded last year and the 36.7 per cent figure in 2024.

The current trajectory suggests 2026 could mark the lowest rate of interceptions since the small boats crisis began in 2018, down from a peak of 46.9 per cent in 2023.