It is Keir Starmer’s misfortune that he arrives in Paris today for a meeting with Emmanuel Macron at the moment Europe faces one of its gravest challenges of recent years. More than 11,000 migrants have landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the last week, an unprecedented influx that has exposed the deep divisions within the EU.
Labour’s leader reportedly wants to discuss how to better improve relations between Britain and the EU, but he may not have the full attention of the French president. Not only is Europe arguing amongst itself over how to tackle the migrant crisis, but Macron’s own party, Renaissance, is also at loggerheads over the content of the government’s impending Immigration and Asylum Bill.
Starmer believes his meeting with Macron is ‘a significant PR coup’
More than 130,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Italy this year, numbers not seen since the great migrant crisis of 2015.
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