Burnham turns tough on migrants as Macron arrives at No 10 The new PM discovers foreign policy comes with the jobAndy Burnham is about to get his first proper taste of the international stage — and he has chosen migration as one of his opening shots. The prime minister welcomes Emmanuel Macron to Downing Street on Thursday, with the French president becoming the first foreign leader to visit Burnham since he entered No 10. The meeting is supposed to be about the big stuff: Iran, Ukraine, Britain's relationship with the European Union and the increasingly poisonous problem of illegal migration. But there is little doubt which issue will attract the most attention at home. The boats. Burnham wants the boats stoppedBurnham says the recent fall in small-boat crossings proves that Britain and France can make progress when they work together. But he is taking nothing for granted. The prime minister says criminal smuggling gangs are constantly changing their tactics and insists Britain and France must stay ahead of them. His message is deliberately blunt: vulnerable migrants are being exploited by criminal gangs and the governments on both sides of the Channel must regain control. It is a significant change of emphasis for a prime minister who, since taking office, has concentrated overwhelmingly on domestic issues such as living costs and the economy. The migrant crisis may have slipped down the political agenda because arrivals have fallen sharply. Burnham clearly has no intention of allowing it to disappear altogether. France gets more policeThe Anglo-French operation is about to become considerably larger. The number of French officers working on the small-boat problem in northern France is expected to rise to almost 1,050 — roughly a quarter more than before. Among them will be a specialist 75-person team tasked with seizing equipment and arresting smugglers on French territory. An intelligence unit will also expand from 18 to 30 officers, while another 45 officers will be deployed to France's western coast to deal with the larger “mega-dinghies” increasingly being used by the gangs. The message from London is unmistakable. Britain doesn't just want fewer boats crossing the Channel. It wants the people launching them hunted down before they reach the water. But has Burnham really solved anything?There is one rather large elephant in the room. Small-boat crossings have fallen to their lowest level in seven years, but it would be a mistake to assume that every bit of that reduction can be credited to British or French policy. Migration experts have pointed to several external factors, including improvements in Syria's security situation, which may have reduced the number of people making the journey. That doesn't make the Anglo-French cooperation irrelevant. It does, however, make the political victory parade rather premature. Smuggling routes can change quickly. So can the nationalities of those attempting the crossing. And the gangs have repeatedly demonstrated that when one route becomes difficult, they simply look for another. The curious Burnham balancing actThere is another, rather more complicated, political calculation behind the Macron meeting. Burnham wants Britain to have a closer relationship with Europe while simultaneously promising to be tougher on immigration. That could become a difficult balancing act. The EU wants Britain to move further towards Brussels on issues including youth mobility and student access to British universities. Britain, meanwhile, wants better arrangements for electricity and agricultural trade. Both sides have something to gain. But immigration remains one of the areas where closer European cooperation could become politically explosive. Burnham has already suggested that Britain should not simply accept every demand coming from Brussels. His so-called “Makerfield test” — judging government policy against the interests of his own constituents — could prove particularly relevant when European negotiators start discussing how many young Europeans Britain should allow into the country under a new mobility scheme. The EU reset is comingThe timing is important. European leaders postponed a planned July summit to give Britain's new prime minister time to review agreements negotiated by Keir Starmer. A new summit is expected in November. That leaves Burnham with only a few weeks to decide exactly how far he wants his European reset to go. He has previously said he wanted Britain eventually to rejoin the EU, although since becoming prime minister he has made clear that actually pursuing membership is not on his immediate agenda. Instead, he appears to be aiming for something rather more politically manageable: closer to Europe, but not back inside it. And that may be the formula he needs to make the relationship work without handing his opponents an enormous political weapon. From Makerfield to MacronBurnham's international education has been rapid. Only last month he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations and announced that Britain would declassify sensitive military information to help Ukraine develop additional cruise missiles. Now he is sitting down with Macron to discuss Iran, Ukraine, migration and Britain’s future relationship with Europe. That is a long way from a prime minister promising to concentrate almost entirely on problems at home. Foreign policy has a habit of finding British prime ministers whether they want it or not. Macron gets the new BurnhamFor Macron, meanwhile, the meeting offers an opportunity to discover exactly what sort of prime minister Burnham intends to be. He will find someone who wants closer economic relations with Europe but does not appear keen to accept Brussels' every demand. Someone who wants France's help in stopping migrants but also wants Britain's relationship with the EU reset. And someone who is increasingly discovering that being prime minister means dealing with the world outside Britain whether the domestic agenda is ready for it or not. The small boats may currently be fewer. The political problem, however, has not gone away. And if Burnham really does intend to “restore order and control” to Britain's borders, Macron may be about to discover that the new man in No 10 is considerably tougher on migration than some European capitals might have expected. The honeymoon with Europe hasn't even started — and already the negotiating has begun. SOURCE
