Petty Macron takes his revenge on UK
He bans Patel from meeting in row over migrant plans
EMMANUEL Macron’s outburst at Boris Johnson over the death of 27 migrants in the Channel could lead to more lives lost, Whitehall sources warned last night.
In an extraordinary fit of pique, the French government withdrew Priti Patel’s invitation to a crisis meeting tomorrow after the Prime Minister published a five-point action plan.
President Macron accused the PM of breaking protocol by tweeting an open letter to him after three children, seven women and 17 men died when their dinghy sank off Calais on Wednesday.
One UK Government source said: ‘Are they really going to let more people – more children – drown because of a tweet? Because that is what it boils down to.’
A minister said: ‘Macron appears to be having a breakdown. People are dying in French waters and he is acting like it is only our problem and not his.’
And a Cabinet insider added: ‘We have repeatedly asked for things in private and have been getting nowhere, so why should we keep this behind closed doors? There are countless examples of French minissettle
‘We are sick of double-speak’
ters slagging us off on Twitter. It seems a massive over-reaction.’
Mr Johnson’s plan proposed joint beach patrols, a bilateral deal to return migrants to France to break the smugglers’ business model, joint airborne surveillance and maritime patrols, use of advanced sensors and radar to track migrants and people traffickers, and better intelligence-sharing.
Government sources said the UK was keen to secure a deal with France, but would negotiate directly with other European leaders if Britain continued to be barred from tomorrow’s emergency talks.
‘Home Office officials are in Paris meeting French counterparts at the interior ministry as planned,’ one revealed.
‘The Prime Minister’s five-point plan will, I’m sure, be on the agenda. This resistance is at Macron level.
‘If we can’t go to the meeting we will talk to people separately... to Germany, to Belgium, to the Netherlands, and to Brussels.
‘The Home Secretary will call them. But France has to be part of the solution.’
In his outburst yesterday, Mr Macron expressed his chagrin at Mr Johnson’s decision to publicly post his letter, which was handsigned ‘Dear Emmanuel’.
The French president, who will seek re-election in April, said EU ministers would ‘work seriously to serious issues with serious people’, and would ‘move forward efficiently with the British, if they decide to get serious’.
Mr Macron added: ‘We don’t communicate between leaders via tweets or published letters, we are not whistleblowers.’
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin told Miss Patel the letter was a ‘disappointment’ and making it public ‘made it even worse’.
He told the Home Secretary: ‘I therefore need to cancel our meeting in Calais on Sunday.’
France said that the meeting would go ahead between Mr Darmanin and counterparts from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Brussels.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Mr Johnson’s tweet had been ‘completely inappropriate’, adding: ‘We are sick of double-speak.’
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said Mr Johnson did not regret sending the letter, and explained it was shared on Twitter because ‘the public understandably want to know what we’re doing to prevent this from happening again’.
The spokesman urged the Elysée Palace to let Miss Patel attend tomorrow’s talks, adding: ‘Friends and neighbours need to work together to address this global challenge collectively.’
No10 said the proposals set out in the letter had been sent in a ‘spirit of partnership and co-operation’, adding: ‘We want to work closely with international partners, obviously including France, on what is a shared issue so that we can find shared solutions.’