Political commentator Matthew Goodwin has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer's newly announced migration deal with France, declaring "this is not going to work" and claiming "Britons are crying inside" over the agreement.

The Prime Minister unveiled the "groundbreaking" one in, one out scheme during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier today.

Under the pilot programme, illegal migrants arriving by small boats will be returned to France in exchange for asylum seekers currently in France being allowed to enter the UK through legal routes.

Reacting to the statement, Matthew Goodwin said: "I'm laughing at Keir Starmer, but I'm actually crying inside for the British people because this is not going to come close to solving our border crisis.

Matthew Goodwin has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer's newly announced migration deal

"What we've got here is basically an exchange programme for illegal migrants: one in, one out. That’s not what the British people want.

"What they want is for the estimated 1.2 million illegal migrants and anyone else who arrives illegally by boat to be removed from the country.

"They don’t want to then have to accept other asylum seekers in exchange for removing lawbreakers from their country.

"Do you know how many illegal migrants who have arrived in small boats this plan is estimated to remove?

"Just 1.5 per cent. That’s it 1.5 per cent of all illegal migrants who’ve arrived in Britain via the small boats.

"And here’s the other thing no one else has pointed this out, I predict on this show what’s going to happen.

"What Keir Starmer and Macron have just done is create another major pull factor for migrants across North Africa and the Middle East to head to France, in the hope that human rights lawyers and others can establish some tenuous link to the UK, so that they’ll be brought here in exchange for one of these illegal migrants.

"This is not going to work.

"Just lastly, we need to get tough. Leave the ECHR, reform the Human Rights Act, create an active deterrent: offshore processing, detain and deport.

"This plan is not going to do that."

Keir Starmer announced the deal today POOL

The new agreement will see migrants who arrive illegally "detained and returned to France in short order", according to the Prime Minister.

In exchange, the UK will accept asylum seekers from France who have not attempted illegal entry and who pass "strict security checks".

Starmer told the press conference: "In exchange for every return, a different individual will be allowed to come here via a safe route, controlled and legal, subject to strict security checks and only open to those who have not tried to enter the UK illegally."

The Prime Minister defended the reciprocal nature of the deal, stating: "We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need."

He added that solving the small boats crisis requires international cooperation rather than "acting alone".