Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal with France has been scrapped just over a year after it came into operation.

The Home Office announced the scheme – which allowed Channel small boat migrants to be returned to France – was ‘no longer processing new cases’.

Its failure will be a blow to Labour’s attempts to tackle the Channel crisis, and could risk an up-tick in small boat arrivals after recent falls.

Cases that are already in the system will continue, the Home Office said, including bringing migrants to Britain from France if they are accepted under the reciprocal terms of the deal.

The first removal under the scheme took place on September 18 last year.

In all, more than 1,500 migrants have been returned to France and ‘just under’ 1,500 have come to the UK, it is understood.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We continue to work with France to relentlessly tackle small boat crossings, and we’ve made real progress.

‘Numbers are significantly down on last year and crossings this summer were the lowest in six years.

Migrants try to board a smuggler’s boat off the beach of Equihen-Plage, northern France, last week

‘The government’s pilot with France to remove asylum seekers in exchange for an equal number of legal migrants is no longer processing new cases.

‘However, flights will continue over the coming weeks to swiftly remove small boat migrants from the UK, and we will use lessons learned from the pilot to accelerate efforts to return small boat migrants with no right to remain in the UK.’

Labour scrapped the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of its first acts in office in 2024.

Instead, the Government has insisted it can tackle the Channel crisis by increasing law enforcement activities both here and in Europe, along with closer co-operation with the French.

There had been an expectation that the ‘one in, one out’ deal would be extended – at least until the end of this month and possibly longer.

But the French have instead voiced their aspiration for a wider deal which would see Britain accepting migrants not only from France but from other parts of the European Union too.

Earlier this month Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the cost of sending small boat migrants back to France under the deal had risen to £56,000 a head.

Previous figures had put the cost of each return at less than £50,000.

She also told MPs ‘relatively small’ numbers of migrants had been involved in the scheme and it had been ‘operationally difficult to scale up very large numbers of removals every week into the French system’.

The collapse of the French deal comes after last week witnessed chaos on the Channel with two dinghies reaching the Kent coast without being intercepted by UK Border Force.

It also saw an unprecedented 38-hour voyage from Normandy by a small boat, raising fresh questions over the efficacy of Labour’s beach patrol agreement with the French, which carries a £662million price tag for the British taxpayer.