French
President
Emmanuel
Macron
will
meet
UK
opposition
chief
Keir
Starmer
Tuesday,
a
chance
for
both
men
to
strike
up
a
political
relationship
ahead
of
the
2024
UK
general
election.
The
closed-door
talks
at
Macron’s
Elysee
Palace
in
Paris
come
as
part
of
a
mini-international
tour
for
Starmer,
who
visited
Europol
in
The
Hague
last
week
and
appeared
alongside
fellow
centre-left
leaders
–
including
Canada’s
Justin
Trudeau
and
former
British
prime
minister
Tony
Blair
–
at
a
weekend
gathering
in
Montreal.
Starmer
has
also
recently
said
he
talks
regularly
with
former
US
president
Barack
Obama.
But
in
a
Sunday
interview
billed
by
the
Financial
Times
as
Starmer
“stepping
onto
the
global
stage”,
he
told
the
newspaper
he
would
“attempt
to
get
a
much
better
deal
for
the
UK”
with
the
EU.
The
post-Brexit
Trade
and
Cooperation
agreement
struck
by
ex-prime
minister
Boris
Johnson
is
due
for
review
in
2025.
France
is
a
partner
of
rare
importance
for
Britain
as
an
EU
heavyweight,
close
military
ally
and
fellow
nuclear
power,
fellow
UN
Security
Council
member
and
immediate
neighbour.
Cross-channel
ties
have
warmed
under
Prime
Minister
Rishi
Sunak,
a
former
banker
like
Macron
whose
relationship
with
the
president
has
been
dubbed
a
“bromance”
by
parts
of
the
media.
But
with
his
party
struggling
in
the
polls,
the
Conservative
leader
must
call
an
election
by
January
2025
–
even
as
he
confronts
stubborn
challenges
including
inflation
and
irregular
arrivals
of
migrants
across
the
Channel.
Both
sides
have
been
tight-lipped
about
the
content
of
Tuesday’s
closed-door
talks,
but
Macron’s
invitation
is
“not
an
endorsement,
it’s
not
going
to
be
a
negotiation,”
Georgina
Wright,
a
European
politics
expert
at
French
think-tank
Institut
Montaigne
told
AFP.
“It’s
really
just
a
question
of
meeting
and
hearing
what
Labour
would
do
differently
and
that’s
it,”
she
added,
predicting
Macron
will
be
“as
much
as
he
can
in
listening
mode”
but
may
also
“highlight
France’s
priorities”.
“Macron
does
this
all
the
time”
but
“never
once
has
he
endorsed
a
candidate”
ahead
of
an
overseas
election,
Wright
noted
–
recalling
his
meetings
with
German
candidates
including
now-Chancellor
Olaf
Scholz
and
his
opponent
Armin
Laschet
ahead
of
the
2021
election
to
the
Bundestag.
Struggling
to
make
headway
on
his
legislative
priorities
in
a
hung
parliament,
Macron
also
has
a
domestic
political
interest
in
showing
he
remains
a
coveted
interlocutor
abroad.
Any
British-French
meeting
is
likely
to
include
discussion
of
migration,
as
one
of
Sunak’s
biggest
political
headaches
is
the
frequent
arrivals
in
small
boats
from
northern
France.
Starmer
last
week
signalled
that
he
would
like
Britain
to
join
an
EU-wide
quota
system
for
sharing
out
migrants.
The
arrangement
has
come
under
strain
following
record
arrivals
on
the
Italian
island
of
Lampedusa
and
Germany’s
suspension
of
accepting
migrants
living
in
Italy.
Starmer’s
trip
to
France
also
comes
the
day
before
a
state
visit
by
King
Charles
III
and
Queen
consort
Camilla
–
British
figures
generating
“much
more
excitement
in
France”
than
the
opposition
leader,
Wright
said.
By
Tom
Barfield
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