Rishi Sunak has agreed to give nearly half a billion pounds to France in a bid to tackle illegal immigration, it was announced today, as he hailed a “new beginning” in Anglo-Franco relations.
The prime minister committed to sending Paris £478 million (541 million euro) over three years to fund a new detention centre in France, as well as hundreds of extra police to stop small boats leaving French shores.
The announcement came after Mr Sunak travelled to the French capital for the wide-ranging summit with Mr Macron, seen as a key moment in building relations between the UK and France, as well as the rest of Europe.
Mr Macron is seen as a crucial entry point to resetting relations with the wider EU, with the UK keenly aware of the weight France and Germany’s opinions hold within the bloc.
Announcing the new package, the PM described today’s meeting as “a new beginning – an entente renewed”, adding that the pair were “writing a new chapter in this relationship”.
But, despite the upbeat mood, there was no sign of the returns agreement with France that the Government desires as Mr Sunak makes “stopping the boats” one of his top priorities.
Mr Macron rejected the idea of a deal where France would take back those who travel to the UK on small boats.
The French President said such a pact would not be “an agreement between the UK and France (but) … an agreement between UK and the EU.”
The UK has already committed more than £300 million to France in the last decade to help tackle unauthorised migration, but the latest pledge is a significant increase on previous sums.
The government’s contribution towards this package will be €141 million in 2023-24, €191 million in 2024-25 and €209 million in 2025-6. The French will contribute significantly more funding, the government said.
An agreement with France designed to help prevent crossings was revised in November to be worth around £63 million in 2022/23, £8 million more than the previous year.
Speaking at the press conference, Mr Macron said the sums of money involved were “commensurate” with the current need.
He added that working together on small boats the UK and France had “dismantled” 55 organised crime networks.
Mr Sunak said the pair agreed that “criminal gangs should not get to decide who comes to our country”.
He went on to reject the idea that the new money would fuel French efforts to stop the boats. “These are joint efforts .. to tackle what is a shared challenge.”
Mr Sunak had earlier said that giving France money was a “sensible investment” when the UK is spending more than £5 million a day on hotels and that the money was already “yielding benefits”.
He said: “If you look at the track record in the last couple of years more recently, not only are we able to intercept thousands of boats just this year, actually, which is positive, the joint work has led to something like a few hundred different arrests, disrupted something like 50 different organised crime gangs.
“That’s the outcome of all that joint work, so those are sensible investments for the UK.”
He added: “What we want to do is stop people arriving in the UK in the first place and cooperation with the French teams on the ground helps us to do that…
“If we can strenghten and deepen that cooperation today, I think that would be a positive step forward.”
The summit between Mr Sunak and Mr Macron comes days after the prime minister and Suella Braverman unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill, which would see migrants who arrive in small boats deported and banned from returning.
The French have already stopped around 50 per cent of people trying to cross the channel this year, around 3,000 in total. The proportion of boats that have been prevented from leaving French shores stands at 64 per cent. But the UK is keen to see those figures rise.
Nearly 3,000 people have arrived via small boats in the UK already this year, with almost 46,000 arriving in 2022.
In a sign of how much Anglo-French relations have thawed in recent months, the two men decided to abandon tradition and held a one-to-one meeting with no officials for more than an hour.
The relationship between the two countries – which proved frosty during Boris Johnson’s tenure – reached a new low last year when Liz Truss said the jury was “out” on whether Mr Macron was a friend or a foe.
But he and Mr Sunak have established a rapport some have labelled ‘Le Bromance Part II”, a take on a phrase originally coined when Boris Johnson was in office.
“I can’t figure out the past, all I can do is look forward,” said Mr. Sunak when asked if “Le Bromance” was back between French and British leaders as the two men then walked up the steps of the Élysée Palace arm in arm together.
