Amid continuing tensions among the European powers over how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s zig-zagging policy towards NATO and the Ukraine war, the French president and British prime minister made their latest effort to present an Anglo-French axis.

King Charles III will highlight the crucial bonds between the United Kingdom and France in the face of a “multitude of complex threats” as he welcomes President Emmanuel Macron for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit.

Yvette Cooper has refused to say whether she agreed with Emmanuel Macron ’s claim that Brexit had made tackling illegal immigration harder. It comes after the French president said voters were “sold a lie” on Brexit when they were told it would “make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal immigration ”.

President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain, which began Tuesday, is heavy on pageantry. But both he and Prime Minister Keir Starmer hope for practical results.

As the UK and France plan to start sending some arrivals back, in exchange for other asylum seekers, the BBC sees 220 migrants arrive in Dover.