Emmanuel Macron in major UK snub as French president misses key Starmer summit | World | News
Emmanuel Macron is not attending Sir Keir Starmer‘s summit focused on finding a way to tackle people-smuggling gangs. Some 40 representatives of European countries are gathering in the UK today to try and find an effective solution to end the activity of these groups. But the French President will not be in attendance, despite France being at the centre of the crisis just as much as Britain, though Franch will be represented.
Asked whether there was disappointment in the Government over Mr Macron‘s absence, Dame Angela Eagle told Sky News: “I think we got very high calibre attendees and with the attendees we got are the people who are doing this job, so the Interior Ministry, the equivalent of our Home Secretary, and other ministers.
“We also got, very crucially for day two, the operational experts, so the national crime agencies, the crime prosecution services, the people who are doing the job on the ground – border services, all talking to their counterpart, to see how to challenge this problem.”
Attendees will discuss international co-operation, supply routes, criminal finances and online adverts for dangerous journeys.
Sir Keir is expected to tell the summit that the “vile” people smuggling trade “exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together”, as per Sky News.
He will also point to his record as Director of Public Prosecutions before entering frontline politics, working “across borders throughout Europe and beyond to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives in the process”.
“We prevented planes from being blown up over the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice,” he’s expected to say, adding: “I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in the same way.”
Officials from social media giants TikTok, Meta, and X are also set to join discussions about how to tackle irregular migration being promoted online.
But the Labour government’s strategy tackling the issue by targeting smuggling gangs is yet to have a major impact on the numbers.
Around 6,000 have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year, compared to 5,435 people in the first three months of last year.
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