Scheduled for Tuesday, July 8th, French president Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain will see illegal migration and the Ukraine war high on the agenda—with further dilution of Brexit an almost inevitable sidebar.
In advance of the official pageantry, including a role for King Charles, both countries appear to be managing expectations about a possible deal on ‘small boat’ migrants. France has previously signalled a willingness to take a tougher line on ‘taxi boats’ and cross-border exchanges of asylum seekers whose circumstances mean that they would match the terms of a ‘one in, one out’ deal. Starmer attempted but failed to complete this arrangement in time for the first anniversary of his election win, ultimately falling short.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander appeared to talk down the potential for an agreement:
I’m not going to speculate on the coverage of this possibility of a one-in-one-out agreement with France. We’ve seen in the last couple of days, haven’t we, that the French authorities are now using some new tactics to stop the boats in shallow waters. We welcome that and we want to build on it.
Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Chris Philp has demanded that Macron return the £771 million (€894 million) the UK previously paid France to “stop the boats.”
The three-day visit to Windsor and London will be judged by its results, with all eyes on Britain’s flailing PM to produce a result.