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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
John Crace

Macron fails to match Starmer’s effusiveness over small boats deal

Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron
The bromance survives. Just about. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Nigel Farage couldn’t believe his luck. Another cloudless sunny day. The water mill-pond flat. What better way to pass the time than to take to sea and film yourself for X? This was the world shaped in his own image. A small rubber boat, rammed with irregular migrants being escorted across the Channel. First by the French navy, then by UK Border Force.

And Nige wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Every successful migrant fuels his grievance and adds to his popularity. He’d be gutted if the French made more efforts to stop the flow of migrants. Would be at a loss to know what to do with himself. But for Keir Starmer, who was in the middle of trying to negotiate a migrant deal with Emmanuel Macron, the image of another small boat arrival was distinctly suboptimal.

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