Emmanuel Macron launched a furious attack on Brexit during a joint press conference with Sir Keir Starmer. The French president blamed the UK’s exit from the EU for the Channel crisis as the Prime Minister unveiled a new one-in, one-out migrant returns deal.

Mr Macron claimed the British people had been “sold a lie” that leaving the EU would “make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal immigration”. He said: “Since Brexit, and I’m saying all this quite honestly, I know it’s not your case, Prime Minister, but many people in your country explained that Brexit would make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal immigration.

“But it’s in fact since Brexit [that] the UK has no migratory agreement with the EU.”

He added: “It creates an incentive to make the crossing, the precise opposite of what Brexit had promised.”

He later said the British people were “sold a lie … which is that the problem was Europe, but the problem has become Brexit”.

He said: “With your Government, we’re pragmatic, and for the first time in nine years, we’re providing a response.”

The astonishing attack came as the Prime Minister announced that he had agreed a “groundbreaking” one-in, one-out agreement to send back Channel arrivals in exchange for asylum seekers in France.

Mr Macron also appeared to take aim at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who spent Thursday in the Channel observing small boats crossing from France.

The French president said it was “of some significance” that “whilst we have been working hard to get the returns agreement, others have been simply taking pictures of the problem”.

But the Clacton MP hit back on X: “This agreement is a humiliation for Brexit Britain.

“We have acted today as an EU member and bowed down to an arrogant French president.”

It comes as more than 21,000 migrants have arrived on small boats so far in 2025, which is a record for this point in a year.