By Elizabeth Piper and Elizabeth Pineau
LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hope to win agreement from President Emmanuel Macron on tougher measures to control migration on Thursday, the final day of a three-day trip when the French leader was lavished with pomp and ceremony.
After being welcomed by King Charles, who sat next to Macron in a carriage procession to Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Starmer will want to see something concrete to back up Macron’s promise of greater “cooperation and tangible results” on migration.
Starmer, whose popularity has slumped since he won an election landslide last year, needs a win on bringing down high levels of immigration, particularly the number of asylum seekers arriving in small boats, to try to curtail the rise of Britain’s populist Reform UK party, led by Brexit veteran Nigel Farage.
The British leader hopes to reach a deal on a so-called “one in, one out” migrant returns deal – a plan that would see Britain deporting to France people arriving in small boats in return for taking an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers.
But Macron has also spoken of the need for Britain to address “migration pull factors”, suggesting he wanted Starmer to go further in making it harder for migrants to find work in Britain when they do not have legal status to live there.
Downing Street said the two leaders had agreed during a bilateral meeting on Wednesday that they needed new innovative solutions, with Starmer stressing that Britain was increasingly arresting undocumented workers to deter them from coming to Britain for jobs.
Even if a returns deal is not reached on Thursday, the two leaders will hail a visit that saw Macron treated to all the trimmings of a state visit, including a banquet where he spent much of his time chatting to King Charles, with whom he shares a close personal relationship.
Starmer and Macron will hail an agreement to order more Storm Shadow cruise missiles, now used in Ukraine, and a deal to deepen their nuclear cooperation, which will say for the first time that the respective deterrents of both countries can be co-ordinated.
“As close partners and NATO allies, the UK and France have a deep history of defence collaboration and today’s agreements take our partnership to the next level,” Starmer said in a statement. “We stand ready to use our shared might to advance our joint capabilities.”
The agreements deepen work between Britain and France on Ukraine after both nations spearheaded a “coalition of the willing” to help create a planned force to support Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.
An Elysee official said: “We are providing capabilities to Europeans in the face of these increased threats, and in the nuclear field, we are strengthening our solidarity and the anchor of our two countries.”
The state visit, the first for a European leader since Britain left the European Union, was a boost for both leaders from domestic troubles, a chance to celebrate closer ties between two nations often at loggerheads over Brexit.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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