British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer will hope to win agreement from President Emmanuel
Macron on tougher measures to control migration on Thursday, the
final day of a three-day trip when the French leader was
lavished with pomp and ceremony.
After being welcomed by King Charles, who sat next to Macron
in a carriage procession to Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Starmer
will want to see something concrete to back up Macron’s promise
of greater “cooperation and tangible results” on migration.
Starmer, whose popularity has slumped since he won an
election landslide last year, needs a win on bringing down high
levels of immigration, particularly the number of asylum seekers
arriving in small boats, to try to curtail the rise of Britain’s
populist Reform UK party, led by Brexit veteran Nigel Farage.
The British leader hopes to reach a deal on a so-called “one
in, one out” migrant returns deal – a plan that would see
Britain deporting to France people arriving in small boats in
return for taking an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers.
But Macron has also spoken of the need for Britain to
address “migration pull factors”, suggesting he wanted Starmer
to go further in making it harder for migrants to find work in
Britain when they do not have legal status to live there.
Downing Street said the two leaders had agreed during a
bilateral meeting on Wednesday that they needed new innovative
solutions, with Starmer stressing that Britain was increasingly
arresting undocumented workers to deter them from coming to
Britain for jobs.
Even if a returns deal is not reached on Thursday, the two
leaders will hail a visit that saw Macron treated to all the
trimmings of a state visit, including a banquet where he spent
much of his time chatting to King Charles, with whom he shares a
close personal relationship.
Starmer and Macron will hail an agreement to order more
Storm Shadow cruise missiles, now used in Ukraine, and a deal to
deepen their nuclear cooperation, which will say for the first
time that the respective deterrents of both countries can be
co-ordinated.
“As close partners and NATO allies, the UK and France have a
deep history of defence collaboration and today’s agreements
take our partnership to the next level,” Starmer said in a
statement. “We stand ready to use our shared might to advance
our joint capabilities.”
The agreements deepen work between Britain and France on
Ukraine after both nations spearheaded a “coalition of the
willing” to help create a planned force to support Kyiv in the
event of a ceasefire with Russia.
An Elysee official said: “We are providing capabilities to
Europeans in the face of these increased threats, and in the
nuclear field, we are strengthening our solidarity and the
anchor of our two countries.”
The state visit, the first for a European leader since
Britain left the European Union, was a boost for both leaders
from domestic troubles, a chance to celebrate closer ties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British Prime Minister KeirStarmer will hope to win agreement from President EmmanuelMacron on tougher measures to control migration on Thursday, thefinal day of a three-day trip when the French leader waslavished with pomp and ceremony.After being welcomed by King Charles, who sat next to Macronin a carriage procession to Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Starmerwill want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n