Starmer and Macron hope summit will make 'concrete progress' on migrant crossings
The Prime Minister hopes the French president will sign up to a 'one in, one out' deal when they hold a Franco-British summit at Downing Street on the last day of Macron's state visit to the UK.
Under the terms of the deal, Britain would accept migrants with links to the country in exchange for sending others back across the channel.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that some 50 migrants a week would initially be returned to France under the terms of the proposed deal, which it described as largely symbolic.
If such a deal were struck, it would only result in the return of a fraction of the 21,000 people who have made the channel crossing so far in 2025, a record for this point in a year.
But it would also represent a concession by the French that such returns are possible, after years of MPs on the right of British politics insisting France is a 'safe' country where migrants can be sent back to.
When Macron and Starmer met in Downing Street on Wednesday, the small boats crisis appeared to be the mainstay of their conversations.
The pair agreed the crossings are a 'shared priority that requires shared solutions', a Downing Street spokesperson said.
They added: 'The Prime Minister spoke of his Government's toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.
'The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.'
Both leaders are aiming for 'concrete progress' on the issue at Thursday's summit, No 10 said, as well as in other areas like support for Ukraine.
Following the French-UK summit, the two leaders will host a call with coalition of the willing partners, the proposed peacekeeping mission to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine in future.In a sign of close alignment on defence, Britain and France have announced they will buy new supplies of Storm Shadow missiles, which both have loaned to Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia.The two nations will also work closely to develop a successor to the long-range missile, the Ministry of Defence said.
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