Sunak needs more than Macron’s help to crack the Channel crisis

There was more than a whiff of ‘bromance’ between Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron when they met at the Anglo-French summit in the city of love. The weather in Paris was grey and cold, but there was no denying the warmth of the greeting that Macron extended to Sunak as the PM arrived at the Elysee yesterday. This is hardly a surprise: after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, the president was just pleased to be hosting a PM who knows how to mind his Ps and Qs.  

Sunak said he was ‘fortunate’ and ‘excited’ to have the opportunity to work with Macron, whom he described in French as ‘mon ami’. Macron looked genuinely touched to be addressed in such heartfelt terms.  

They both described the great Anglo-French reset as a ‘new beginning’ – and Sunak went further, calling it an ‘Entente Renewed’. In what could be seen as a subtle slapdown of his two predecessors, the PM said that successful alliances were ‘about people’.