Emmanuel Macron last night pledged that France will finally adopt a ‘firm’ approach to the small boats crisis – but warned that Britain must act to make it harder for migrants to build a new life here.
The president and first lady Brigitte Macron were welcomed by the Prince and Princess of Wales as he arrived in the UK yesterday for a three-day state visit.
After some pomp and pageantry with the King and Queen at Windsor, he headed to Parliament where he addressed both Houses from the Palace of Westminster’s Royal Gallery.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Macron, under pressure over record small boats numbers this year, said a summit with Sir Keir Starmer this week would produce ‘tangible results’ aimed at reducing the flow of illegal arrivals across the Channel.
But he said the UK also had to address the ‘pull factors’ that mean a third of all illegal migrants entering the EU are heading for the Channel.
France has long complained that the UK makes it too easy for illegal migrants to work and claim benefits in this country, with one of Mr Macron’s MPs recently saying Britain has become an ‘El Dorado for migrants’.
Mr Macron said Britain and France had a ‘shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarityand firmness’.
It was ‘legitimate’, he said, for migrants to ‘hope for a better life elsewhere’. But he said the two countries ‘cannot allow’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with ‘so little respect for human life’.
Emmanuel Macron warned that Britain must act to make it harder for migrants to build a new life here
His remarks came after warnings that Keir Starmer’s plans for a ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns deal could trigger a surge in arrivals this summer
The Prime Minister will hold talks with Mr Macron at Downing Street today in a bid to finalise the details of a returns deal. PIctured: a group of migrants on an inflatable dinghy leaving the coast of northern France in a bid to cross the English channel to reach the UK
His comments came after warnings that Sir Keir’s plans for a ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns deal could trigger a surge in arrivals this summer. The Prime Minister will hold talks with Mr Macron at Downing Street today in a bid to finalise the details of a returns deal, which Government sources yesterday said is ‘in the balance’.
The two are expected to use a summit tomorrow to announce plans to step up enforcement on French beaches in return for millions of pounds in extra funding from the UK.
But Sir Keir is also pushing for a returns deal that would allow the UK to send back some migrants in return for accepting a similar number of from France.
Ministers believe the plan could help act as a deterrent to those seeking a new life in the UK. But Government sources acknowledge the scale of any scheme is likely to be ‘very limited’ initially.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Service Union, warned that the announcement of any new scheme could trigger a surge in arrivals.
She said: ‘Whenever there is a new policy, we have seen it time and time again, people smugglers try to push migrants across saying ‘Go now before it is too late’.’
Border Force officials are also said to have warned ministers privately that announcing the scheme before it is ready to be implemented could spark another wave of crossings.
Some have predicted that the smuggling gangs could offer ‘discounts’ for those who sign up to cross quickly, in a form of ‘summer sale’.
A woman is helped onto a small boat with her child in the thick fog on July 02, 2025 in Gravelines, France
A group of migrants walk through the water to reach an inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain
Sir Keir is also pushing for a returns deal that would allow the UK to send back some migrants in return for accepting a similar number from France
Border Force officials are also said to have warned ministers privately that announcing the scheme before it is ready to be implemented could spark another wave of crossings
A woman and her child walks with a group of migrants on the beach to reach an inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain
No 10 last night refused to comment on progress towards a ‘one in, one out’ deal, which has been knocked off course by late objections from the EU.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has criticised the proposal as a ‘migrant merry-go-round’ and warned that only a deal deporting all Channel migrants would act as an effective deterrent.
‘Anything less that 100 per cent of arrivals getting send straight back won’t work,’ he said.
Sylvie Bermann, a former French ambassador to the UK, claimed Britain was getting value for money yesterday when confronted with the Mail’s revelation that Paris has received £771million in taxpayers’ money to combat migration in the last 14 years.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Britain is paying because France is ‘doing the job for the UK’ but admitted it could not prevent all crossings.
