Allegra Stratton: France’s State Visit Hasn’t Stopped the Boats

This week a UK minister welcomed the sight of the French police slashing a dinghy with a knife, puncturing the inflatable before it could bring yet more migrants across the Channel. Well, in the last 48 hours, the French president has also punctured Keir Starmer’s current plan to stop the boats.

At the time of writing, Emmanuel Macron is still enjoying his state visit. But despite us being more than 24 hours and counting into this expensive jamboree, Macron is still not yet signed up to a scheme that would see France accept the return of people who cross the Channel illegally, in exchange for the UK taking asylum seekers from the official French system. Not only that but he’s pinning the blame on his host. For all that Macron has always enjoyed dropping truth-bombs, it’s a funny way of treating Starmer — a politician who is one of his few natural allies left standing.