The improved UK-France relationship must deliver tangible gains
4 min read
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron's warm words for one another must yield concrete results. If not, it is their far-right rivals who will benefit.
Without question, Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the UK has marked a fresh chapter in Anglo-French relations. Except for perhaps Ireland, no relationship was more strained by the Brexit years than our alliance with France. The lack of trust, the intransigence, the ugly stereotyping – and Liz Truss’ public uncertainty on whether Macron was a “friend or foe” – sullied relations for years. As Francois Hollande put it, the Brexit vote was "a painful choice... deeply regrettable". While that era is behind us, turning neighbourly handshakes and friendly words into practical action will remain the true test, because until words and reality align, both Keir Starmer and Macron could pay the political price.
Despite the new barriers thrown up by Brexit, France remains our fifth-largest trading partner, and close enough for your phone to connect to a French network from the coast of Kent. Our trading relationship is worth £100bn, and in his speech to Parliament, Macron himself cited the 3,500 French companies working in the UK, the second leading foreign employer in Britain.
But Starmer recognises that France is not just important to the UK economically. Diplomatically, the French connection is central to our broader reset with the EU. Indeed, the PM recently told the BBC that it was “over a glass of wine” on a train to Kyiv, where he rolled the pitch to Macron for a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal, which can lower supermarket prices for squeezed Brits. On Tuesday, Macron stressed the need to “deliver” results and strategic investments, particularly in the energy and space sectors. He was emphatic on the need for joint Franco-British leadership in the defence of Europe and received rapturous applause following his call to give opportunities back to young people (did someone say ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’?)
Clearly, then, there is an appetite from both sides to see progress in the areas set out in the UK-EU reset summit agreement, and independent research shows that this is the best way to “deliver” for French and British people alike.
But despite the bonne amie, warm words have not matched cold political reality. From the British side, misplaced concerns around its impact on migration figures may yet limit any reciprocal EU-UK Youth Mobility Scheme to a tokenistic exchange programme for the privileged, while worrying reports continue to circulate that among the EU27, it is the French who are pushing to limit Britain’s access to the EU’s €150bn SAFE defence fund, something which was also agreed in principle at May’s summit. If the benefits of this partnership aren’t felt by ordinary people, populists will exploit that void. And the next leaders of either country may not be interested in salvaging what’s left.
France should seize the opportunity to make progress with a British government that shares mainstream values and objectives. With Reform UK currently polling between two and six points over Labour, if British voters do not feel the benefits of this partnership, if issues like SAFE remain useful shorthand for a lopsided UK-EU relationship, Macron risks leaving his successor to deal with a resurgent Eurosceptic administration in Downing Street, that would rip up any progress on UK-EU relations, with all the requisite damage.
Macron and Starmer face a simple choice: use this window to build a legacy of post-Brexit cooperation or risk feeding the narratives of their most dangerous political adversaries. In allowing the issue of small boats to dominate this visit, both Starmer and Macron have ceded a moment of potential to their domestic right-wing rivals. The two men chose an issue on which nothing they do will ever be enough. Both French and UK far-right parties thrive on failure and fracture.
The timing of the visit suggests something strategic, coming ahead of the inevitably controversial Donald Trump state visit this autumn. A reflection, perhaps, of a growing sense of Brits’ shifting allegiances, and an acceptance of the need to move closer to our more reliable European friends and partners. The populist right on both sides of the Channel doesn’t need this relationship to fail, just for it to stall. Brexit showed how quickly goodwill can evaporate when trust is lost. There’s been a rapprochement. Now we need results. That means Britain delivering on a youth exchange scheme and France backing down on its aversion to the UK’s access to SAFE. Anything less risks turning warm words into wasted chances and fuelling the very forces both men claim they’re here to stop.
Naomi Smith is CEO of Best for Britain.
