Good morning. Emmanuel Macron arrived in the UK yesterday for a three-day state visit. While the British royal family and political elite rolled out the red carpet for the French president, with all the expected pomp and pageantry, the real focus was, and remains, the politics behind the scenes. Top of the agenda: how Britain and France intend to deal with the small-boats crisis.
The UK has backed recent moves by French police to immobilise the inflatable boats used by people smugglers by slashing them. It’s not yet clear whether this was a one-off instance or part of the broader shift in strategy expected to be outlined soon by Keir Starmer and Macron.
