Starmer will hold talks with Macron TODAY amid Channel migrants ‘blame game’ – with ‘one in, one out’ deal hanging in balance

Keir Starmer will hold talks with Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street today amid an apparent blame game over the Channel migrant crisis.

The PM is hoping the French president will commit to a tougher approach to tackling record crossings during his State Visit to the UK.

However, while stressing the need for cooperation Mr Macron used a speech to both Houses of Parliament last night to swipe at ‘pull factors’ drawing people towards Britain.

France has long complained that it is too easy for illegal arrivals to work and claim benefits in this country. One of Mr Macron’s MPs recently branded the UK an ‘El Dorado for migrants’. 

The prospects of a so-called ‘one in, one out’ deal with Paris are also hanging in the balance. 

The pact would mean small boat migrants being sent back to the continent, in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in Europe who have a British link.

Keir Starmer will hold talks with Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street today amid an apparent blame game over the Channel migrant crisis

Mr Macron used a speech to both Houses of Parliament last night to swipe at ‘pull factors’ drawing people towards Britain

Ministers believe the plan could help act as a deterrent, although they acknowledge the scale could be very small initially. 

But critics have branded the idea a ‘migrant merry-go-round’, while the EU commission has intervened to raise concerns that it could cause problems for other member states.

Sir Keir and Mr Macron 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. 

There have been complaints that the £770million handed to Paris for border controls over the past 12 years has achieved little. 

In his wide-ranging speech, Mr Macron, said this week would produce ‘tangible results’ aimed at reducing the flow of illegal arrivals across the Channel.

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’.

The Elysee Palace denied that Mr Macron blames the UK for the crisis.

A senior source said: ‘The French president looks forward to working with the Prime Minister constructively on this shared priority.’

Alongside Downing Street talks, Sir Keir and Mr Macron are also expected to attend a reception with UK and French businesses and an event at the British Museum later.

Their spouses, Brigitte Macron and Lady Victoria Starmer, will have tea and a tour of Downing Street together, followed by all four having lunch.

While they are being hosted by the King at Windsor, the Macrons will lay flowers on the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II and see Fabuleu de Maucour, a horse the French president gave Elizabeth in 2022 to mark her Platinum Jubilee.

A group of migrants attempting to cross from France earlier this month

Government minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said he would not give a ‘running commentary’ on negotiations with the French on a one in, one out deal for cross-Channel migrants.

But he insisted joint working with the French was already making a difference, despite record numbers making the trip in small boats so far in 2025.

The Cabinet Office minister told Times Radio: ‘I’m not going to give a running commentary on discussions on specific proposals.

‘But with regard to the work that is going on with France to tackle the small boat crossings in the English Channel, we can already see that bearing fruit.’

He acknowledged the high number of crossings in the first half of the year but added: ‘Our work with the French authorities has prevented 12,000 people from crossing the Channel. We’ve seized 600 small boats.

‘Now, I’m not saying for a moment this isn’t a difficult problem to solve. There is no silver bullet for it, but that work with the French, that joint work with the French, is hugely important, and it will only deepen. ‘