Will Sunak’s charm offensive with Macron yield results?

Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron held a press conference together at the Élysée Palace today to mark their new deal on stopping the Channel crossings. It is part of the first Franco-British summit for five years and a chance for Sunak to demonstrate his commitment to breaking with the factitious post-Brexit era in UK-France relations. ‘The jury’s still out’ said Liz Truss when asked seven months on whether Emmanuel Macron was a ‘friend or foe.’ ‘Merci, mon ami’ was how Sunak preferred to conclude his charm offensive today. The message was clear: charm is back – and offensive is out.

Sunak referred to the ‘shared challenge’ of stopping these boats; Macron said the nations, bound by history and geography, were determined to ‘make progress in lockstep’. And it wasn’t just warm words between the pair. The UK has signed a new £478 million three year-deal, in return for a raft of measures to stop the small boats crisis.