The Prime Minister has been warned of a "year of court battles" by a Human Rights Lawyer over the migrant exchange deal with France.
Speaking to GB News, David Haigh criticised Sir Keir Starmer's newly launched pilot scheme with the French and stated it is "completely devoid of detail".
The agreement between Britain and France on returning small boat migrants will terminate in June 2026.
PA / GB News
|Keir Starmer has been warned of a 'year of battles in court' over the France migrant exchange scheme
The deal would see up to 50 illegal migrants a week sent back to France, in exchange for legal asylum seekers from across the Channel.
Delivering his verdict on the scheme, Haigh told GB News: "I think the problem we've got here is that this is completely devoid of detail. The statements that the Prime Minister made I think he'll live to regret, when he promises that people coming here from France are going to be sent back in short order.
"Where are they going to be detained? Where are they going to be held? How many are going to be held?"
Questioning the deal further, Haigh added: "Is he saying that every single person coming across on a boat is going to be detained now? It seems like that, but that's not possible in terms of the infrastructure.
PA | The agreement between Britain and France on returning small boat migrants will terminate in June 2026
"Who will select those people going back because the numbers, they're so limited. It's not everybody that's going to be sent back to France. How is that process going to happen? No detail. Is it a core process? Are they going to listen to people making asylum claims at that stage? Again no detail."
Highlighting more "critical details" which are missing from the scheme, Haigh stated: "I think importantly as well, what happens when they do get sent back to France? What does France do with the people that they've accepted back?
"Do they just let them go in France, or will they then then jump on the boat and come back? What happens then? I think these are all critical things that we need to know to be able to decide whether or not this will be successful, because it is a pilot scheme."
Revealing one "positive" outcome of the scheme for Starmer and Britain, Haigh noted: "The one positive I think in all of this is that there are improving relations with France. That's something that obviously we know we need to do deals with. That's one positive, but it's the only one that I can find at the moment."
GB News
|Haigh told GB News that Keir Starmer will 'regret' statements he's made about the exchange deal
Warning of the legal implications of the deal, Haigh cautioned that there will be a "year of court battles" in testing the scheme, as there is am argument for a "human rights and discrimination legal case".
Haigh concluded: "That's why I think this is ultimately going to fail, because if we ignore even the private life argument on the basis of who and how are the people that have been returned been selected and sent back, a lot more are going to be allowed to stay here than have been sent back.
"Someone is making that decision based on what? And at that stage it is an argument for a human rights and discrimination legal case. That's even before you start looking at the rights to private family life.
"So I think we've got not even a summer, we've got a year ahead of battles in courts testing this policy."