Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron pledged more money and an extra 500 police officers to curb cross-Channel migration on Friday, as the British prime minister and French president proclaimed “a new chapter” in the once-strained bilateral relationship.
Sunak promised to pay France €541mn (£478mn) over three years to support increased police patrols, a new detention centre and expanded drone surveillance of beaches around Dunkirk and Calais.
A previous agreement struck in November last year included annual UK spending of €70mn. British officials said French interior minister Gérald Darmanin had promised to spend five euros for every one euro paid by London to Paris.
At the end of the first Franco-British summit in five years, the two leaders embraced and Sunak called Macron “mon ami” — a sign of how they are seeking to move past tensions caused by Brexit and its aftermath.
Sunak returned to the UK with some results on his domestic political priority of curbing small boat crossings, but without a deal on returning migrants. Macron, meanwhile, trumpeted new co-operation on defence and energy, with both countries vowing to expand nuclear and renewables to help combat climate change.
“If we are honest the relationship between our two countries has had its challenges in recent years,” said Sunak. “We’ve discussed every aspect of our crucial alliance today and made important progress . . . we’re writing a new chapter.”
Macron spoke of a “new beginning” for the UK-French relationship but admitted that Brexit had created more complications than expected. “We have to fix the consequences of Brexit,” he said. “This is very clearly a moment of reunion, renewal and a new start.”
Macron and Sunak held one-to-one talks at the Élysée Palace for more than one hour without notetakers or aides, in a sign of the personal warmth — dubbed Le Bromance in the media — between the pair.
But British officials said there was no attempt to persuade France to accept “returns” of migrants — which Macron pointed out was a matter for Britain and the EU.
“First let’s focus on the short run,” said Macron, stressing the need to tackle the problem at source by stopping people smugglers.
Almost 46,000 people crossed the Channel in 2022, up 60 per cent from a year earlier, although both leaders claimed that more than 50 smuggling gangs had been disrupted and thousands of clandestine crossings thwarted.
However, Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney-general, expressed scepticism about Sunak’s deal. “Before [he] gives even more money to the French authorities to tackle this crisis, he needs to explain what was achieved by the hundreds of millions that we’ve given them before,” she said.
Elsewhere, Macron and Sunak outlined plans to boost co-operation on defence procurement and strategy, including their respective naval presences in the Indo-Pacific.
They also reiterated their “steadfast support” for Ukraine, promising to step up training of Ukrainian marines and to send additional equipment and ammunition to help deliver what Sunak called a “decisive breakthrough”.
They vowed to allow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide when or if he wanted to begin talks with Russia, but Macron added: “We share the same analysis and the same desire — Russia cannot and will not win the war.”
Both leaders also endorsed the new European Political Community — a Macron initiative to create a forum for discussion that includes non-EU member states — which Britain will host next year. Another key event will be King Charles’s state visit to France later this month.
Asked if bilateral relations could ever be the same after Brexit, Macron said he was hopeful but that the answer depended on what happened next.
“My wish is that, with our shared history and geography and values, we can have the best possible and closest alliance,” he said.
On the sidelines of the summit, Octopus Energy, the UK’s third-largest energy retailer, announced plans to invest €1bn in France’s green energy market over the next two years.