Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed how to “scale up” efforts to tackle illegal migration and move the UK closer to Europe, as the new prime minister hosted his first foreign leader in Downing Street.
In an official readout of their meeting, No 10 said the pair also discussed production of long-range missiles in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the prime minister raised Israeli plans for new settlements in the West Bank, which he condemned as “unacceptable”.
Burnham said it was “so fitting” that Macron was his first overseas visitor since becoming PM in July, describing him as “our nearest neighbour and close friend Emmanuel”.
PA WireMacron said: “This is a very strong relationship. For me it is extremely important, and I’m here with willingness and a commitment to get closer.”
The French leader’s visit to the UK was primarily to mark the Bayeux Tapestry’s loan to the British Museum. He met King Charles at the museum on Wednesday, ahead of the medieval tapestry going on public display next week.
In bilateral talks on Thursday, No 10 said Burnham and Macron agreed they were making headway in reducing small boat crossings in the English Channel but now needed to go further.
They also “discussed the UK’s drive to get closer to Europe”, while Burnham raised concerns about the potential impact of the Made in Europe procurement plan, being drawn up in Brussels to protect EU industries, on British sectors.
Burnham has previously called for closer ties with Europe, as had his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer.
The pair also discussed establishing local assembly lines in Ukraine for the Scalp long-range missile, a French version of the UK’s Storm Shadow cruise missile.
The leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the need to ensure de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz.
And Burnham raised Israel’s move to open up tenders for the construction of settlement homes in a strategically important part of the occupied West Bank, saying it was “unacceptable and only served to undermine the prospect of the two-state solution”.
The development in the so-called E1 area would in effect divide the West Bank in two and isolate East Jerusalem.
Plans to build there have long been internationally condemned, with settlements illegal under international law.
The arrival of the first foreign leader under the Burnham premiership is an important symbolic moment – it shows the relationship with Paris is an important priority.
But it also reflects an obvious reality – to further reduce small boats crossings, working with France will be essential.
France and the UK have been working extremely closely on Ukraine and Iran, trying to jointly influence the White House.
And Paris will be an important player as the UK seeks even stronger economic ties with Europe under the new No 10 administration.
The “mega dinghies” crossing the Channel illegally – first seen earlier in August with a 15-metre long vessel carrying a record 230 migrants towards the UK – are arguably the most pressing challenge facing the pair.
It follows a summer when the number of small boat arrivals in the UK fell to a seven-year low.
Downing Street says 45 extra police officers are being deployed to French beaches in a “surge team” to tackle larger dinghies with more people packed onto them.
Earlier on Tuesday, Home Office Minister Anna Turley said the officers were “just part of the armoury” of more than 1,000 officers on northern French beaches who are now doing “actual intervention” in the water.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that videos in recent weeks “show them going to the boats, slashing them, pushing people back, being bombarded with stones and bricks and coming under a lot of challenge to do that, so they are intervening”.
In a post on X, in which he said he was “do[ing] politics differently”, Burnham laid out the latest small boat, returns and asylum hotel figures, describing smuggling gangs as a “shared European challenge”.
Asked about the extra police on French beaches, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the BBC she welcomed European collaboration “but the boats aren’t stopping”.
“We have spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, paying the French to man the borders,” she said.
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