France’s justice minister did not mince his words. Appearing in his capacity as former interior minister (from 2020 to 2024), Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin tore into the British strategy for combating illegal immigration across the Channel, denouncing insufficient cooperation, “methods worthy of extremely hostile countries,” and “the incredible hypocrisy” of British society on the issue.

Speaking about Franco-British cooperation during his time as Interior Minister, at the parliamentary commission investigating the consequences of the Touquet agreements, the France-UK pact for security along the two nations’ border, including the patrolling of the English Channel, Darmanin emphasized what he described as an imbalance in relations.

“It took us three years to finally obtain judicial cooperation,” recalled the former minister, who said he still doubts today whether it is truly effective. He also accused London of failing to fully respect French sovereignty: “The British home secretary’s main demand, regardless of who the French minister was, was: ‘We want joint patrols on French territory.’ We always refused that.”

During the hearing, the former interior minister described “moments of extremely high diplomatic tension” with London. “They did not respect our sovereignty and used methods worthy of extremely hostile countries to determine whether we were truly applying measures and genuinely improving things,” he said, referring—without elaborating—to exchanges covered by defense secrecy.

Darmanin spoke at length about what he described as the contradictions of the British system.

“The second point I would like to stress regarding the difficulties with our British friends is the incredible hypocrisy of British society, economically speaking,” Darmanin declared.

Among other things, he criticized the low number of deportations carried out in the United Kingdom. “Britain is in a situation where there are probably more than one million irregular immigrants (…) and, at the same time, you have only 5,000 deportations per year,” he said, comparing it with France, which he declared “deports more people than any other country in Europe.”

In the Justice Minister’s view, this disparity sends a very clear signal to would-be migrants seeking to cross the Channel.

“When you are in Britain, not only do you reunite with your family, but you are also certain that they will not be able to deport you,” he said, alluding to this as one of the drivers behind the crossings.

Finally, Darmanin directly challenged the promises made to Britons during the Brexit referendum.

“The British must accept one simple idea: Brexit does not work when it comes to immigration,” he argued.

The former interior minister said leaders who promised a massive reduction in migration flows by leaving the European Union created permanent political pressure on successive governments.

“A country that has fully regained its sovereignty, that implemented Brexit, has more legal and illegal immigrants than before. Whatever the government,” Darmanin asserted, concluding that only cooperation with the European Union can produce results.