Boris calls for bridge across the Channel
We need better links than a railway line, says Johnson and French president agrees, saying ‘let’s do it’
BORIS JOHNSON has raised the prospect of Britain and France building a bridge over the Channel as Emmanuel Macron said the two countries should “make a new tapestry together”.
The Foreign Secretary, who met the French president at yesterday’s Anglofrench summit, said it was “ridiculous” that two of the world’s biggest economies were “linked by a single railway”. He had championed the idea of a road tunnel under the Channel but believes a bridge might now be an option.
The Daily Telegraph has been told that when Mr Johnson suggested building a second Channel crossing, Mr Macron replied: “I agree. Let’s do it.”
At the summit, the French president made it clear to Theresa May that Britain would have to pay if it wanted access to the European Union’s financial services market after Brexit.
Mr Macron warned the Prime Minister that requesting full access to the single market without accepting freedom of movement amounted to “hypocrisy”. Britain wants the financial services industry, which has a trade surplus of £72billion with the EU, to be included in any Brexit trade deal, but Mr Macron said: “If you want access, be my guest, but you need to contribute to the [EU] budget.”
He added: “Otherwise you can choose between Norway or being a member of the EU.”
Norway is not a member of the EU but pays for access to the single market. It must accept freedom of movement as part of its deal.
Mrs May and Mr Macron, who was making his first presidential visit to Britain, agreed a new treaty on border controls, which Mr Macron christened the Sandhurst Treaty after the location of the talks at the Royal Military Academy in Berkshire.
It includes a promise that Britain will take up to 260 unaccompanied child migrants from Calais and other Channel ports and will reduce the amount of time taken to process their applications from six months to 25 days.
Adults seeking asylum in the UK will be given a decision within a month, which Mrs May believes will deter illegal migrants from flocking to Calais because they face being sent home more quickly if their claims are turned down.
Mrs May and Mr Macron also agreed to closer cooperation on defence and security, including a deal to contribute troops to a 10,000-strong Joint Expeditionary Force which would be ready to deploy to trouble spots by 2020.
Mr Johnson’s hopes of a 22-mile Channel bridge, however, proved the most eye-catching suggestion to come out of the talks.
He hinted at his desire for more big Anglo-french infrastructure projects on Twitter, saying: “Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?”
Mr Johnson is understood to have told aides: “We are two of the world’s greatest economies linked by a single railway. It’s ridiculous.
“Technology is moving on all the time and there are much longer bridges
elsewhere, including one that is 34 miles long in Japan.”
The Daily Telegraph understands that he discussed a privately funded bridge or tunnel link with his French counterparts.
Mr Macron said Britain and France “share the same destiny” and that their history and geography will not be affected by Brexit. Referring to France’s forthcoming loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to Britain, he said: “We are somehow making a new tapestry together.”
Six other Cabinet ministers met their counterparts, but there was no place for David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, because Brexit was off the agenda.
Before the summit, Mrs May and Mr Macron ate lunch at a 17th century English pub, the Michelin-starred Royal Oak Paley Street, in the village of Littlefield Green near Maidenhead. Mr Macron inspected a guard of honour when he arrived at Sandhurst.
Meanwhile, Christian Noyer, a former Bank of France governor tasked by the French government with persuading banks to relocate to Paris, told the BBC that Brexit would not be a “catastrophe” for the City.