In pandering to the far right on immigration, Macron has handed it a victory. Take note, Britain

‘Her longstanding demands for putting ‘the French first’ had been enshrined in law, Le Pen said.’ Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen at the Elysee Palace. Photograph: Reuters

Immigration derangement syndrome is causing havoc on both sides of the Channel, arriving in France this week in the form of a titanic row, not a small boat. The president, Emmanuel Macron, is accused by the French left of accepting an immigration law so repressive that it has been applauded by Marine Le Pen. The leftwing politician Manon Aubry called it “the most racist law we have seen” in France. She had presumably never heard of the Vichy regime. The health minister, Aurélien Rousseau, has resigned over it.

Of what is Macron accused? Is the French president sending asylum seekers to North Korea? Building a wall along the Franco-Italian border? No. But on Tuesday night, a raft of centre-right amendments turned a much delayed and relatively anodyne government immigration bill into a laundry list of rightwing slogans.