Last week the President of France Emmanual Macron visited the UK as part of the ongoing work by our government to improve relations with our friends in Europe.
While I didn’t get to see President Macron’s speech in Parliament, his visit was an important moment for our country. It was a much-welcomed chance to build a closer relationship with France and an opportunity to tackle the big issues that we see impacting people across Hounslow every day.
The centrepiece of the visit was a new arrangement where the UK and France will work closely together around the channel crossings. The French government has agreed for an exchange programme where individuals arriving from France across the channel will be returned, in exchange for a safe route being set up for those in France seeking asylum, who have a family member living here in the UK.
This comes alongside increased action by the French police in Northern France to stop boat crossings, with new tactics used to stop the boats in the water, particularly the new ‘taxi boats’ where migrants wait out at sea in smaller vessels before being picked up by larger boats. The problem around irregular migration is one being felt by all European countries, and we should not think that the UK is alone in having to tackle this problem. The last government offered gimmick solutions such as the expensive and cruel Rwanda Scheme.
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I was pleased that the government recently announced that they intend to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament. Hounslow has always been a welcoming borough and one that has welcomed people from across the world, including those fleeing conflict in areas ranging from East Africa to the Balkans.
I have long seen the use of hotels as being too expensive and not effective in helping asylum seekers access the help and support they need. I also believe we need to crack down on rogue employers who unlawfully employ immigrants with no right to work, and exploit them, due to the UKs historically weak labour laws.
I’m pleased that our government are working with France to tackle irregular migration and also to improve trade links with France and the EU. So many businesses locally rely on trading with the EU and I know that Brexit had a big economic hit on west London with businesses losing suppliers, facing extra costs and finding it harder to recruit staff.
The government’s recent agreement with the EU is a much welcome first step. I was also pleased to see President Macron announce his support for a youth mobility scheme enabling young people in France and the UK to easily move for work. As the president said for generations artists and creatives have been able to move between our two countries and I believe it is in our national interest to agree a new scheme so that young people have the benefits that my generation had.
France is one of our country’s oldest allies and our nations have stood together during war, reached the heights of engineering with the Channel tunnel and Concorde and have a shared history going back one thousand years. I’m so pleased that the prime minister and this government are working with our partners and friends and are turning the page on the last decade of difficult relations.
