Burnham, Macron Hold Channel Talks as UK Sends 45 More Officers to French Beaches
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Sep 3
Burnham, Macron Hold Channel Talks as UK Sends 45 More Officers to French Beaches
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Sep 3
Summary
Downing Street talks on Thursday put Andy Burnham and Emmanuel Macron face to face on Channel crossings, defence and wider UK-EU ties, with Burnham calling Macron his first overseas visitor since taking office in July.
A 15-metre "mega dinghy" carrying a record 230 migrants toward the UK in August sharpened the focus on crossings, even after overall small-boat arrivals fell to a seven-year summer low.
Britain says 45 extra officers are joining more than 1,000 already deployed on northern French beaches, where French police have recently been filmed intervening in the water to stop launches.
The meeting also covered Ukraine and the Middle East, while Burnham cast smuggling gangs as a shared European challenge and the Conservatives pressed him on both border enforcement and a 3% of GDP defence spending timeline.