Macron’s UK visit charts course for new relationship with PM Burnham

A French president looking to shore up his EU legacy meets a fresh face looking to make his mark on Downing Street.PARIS (CN) — French President Emmanuel Macron became the first EU leader to visit the U.K. under its new Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday and Thursday, when the two inaugurated the opening of the Bayeux Tapestry exhibit at the British Museum.The 11th century tapestry — which depicts the Norman conquest of England — made an arduous trip across the English Channel this summer for a rare display that will open to the public on Sept. 10. Macron and Burnham were pictured strolling through the museum and admiring it alongside King Charles Wednesday.But the visit is more than a cultural excursion. On Thursday, the leaders will hold their first talks since former U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer left his post in July. The meeting is likely to set the tone for new future bilateral ties, which could ricochet into the U.K.-EU relationship as a whole.“There is a personal stake for Macron — because he only has eight months left in his presidency — and that is to secure support from trusted and historic allies,” Gilbert Casasus, a prominent political scientist, said. “And this contributes to his political legacy.”But there are competing dynamics at play. Burnham has been pushing to prioritize home affairs, and it’s unclear how this will translate onto the international stage.“It’s very hard to know what Burnham thinks about anything as yet, because he hasn’t given us much detail, but my hunch is — and it’s only a hunch — that he will probably deprioritize the relationship with the EU a little bit, because he’s got such an ambitious domestic agenda,” Anand Menon, the director of the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank and professor of European Politics at Kings College London, said. “And that agenda seems to be focused on using devolution to try and spur more regional growth, and it doesn’t include much about the European Union.”Menon described the simmering tensions instilled by Brexit: France has been seen as “difficult” for having a “closed” and “protectionist” view of the bloc, and doesn’t want to see non-member states being given what it sees as “excessive” concessions.“That’s because for France, building the European Union is a project,” he said. “And even if that cuts against some of their other interests, they prioritize building a European Union where members are prioritized significantly above non-members.”In Menon’s view, the pair of nations will likely gravitate toward subjects they agree upon. Ukraine is an evident example, since the Coalition of the Willing essentially offers “expressions of rhetorical support” rather than material help, according to Menon.Menon expects other sticking points, like agriculture deals and negotiations over a youth mobility scheme between the U.K. and EU, will also come up Thursday, but could be brushed over since that will be “the more difficult part of their conversation.”Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Marie-France van Heel welcome French President Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron at 10 Downing Street in London, on Sept. 3, 2026. (Amer Ghazzal / NurPhoto via AFP)But migration will almost certainly be on the table. In August 2025, France and the U.K. launched the “one in, one out” pilot program to discourage migrants from the dangerous crossing of the English Channel. Under the scheme, the U.K. sends people who crossed on small boats to France in return for accepting some who followed the legal asylum-seeking procedure.Meghan Benton, director of the Global Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said while the program has been working “to some extent,” there are still kinks to be ironed out. The scheme “hasn’t been very well communicated to migrants,” she said, leading to confusion when people arrive in the U.K. and are told that they’ll be deported back to France.The confusion undermines the ethos of the program, meant to encourage people to pursue a legal path to residency.“The message didn’t really seep through down to communities,” Benton said. “Because if this is functioning as it should, then both the inbound pathway to the U.K. and the returns should be the deterrent for irregular migration.”She said questions still remain on Burnham’s stance toward migration compared to his predecessor, who made the issue a priority.“I think it’s unclear yet whether that’s a reflection of different priorities; whether he’s trying to insulate himself a little bit from the sort of tricky international and migration challenges, or whether it’s just that he hasn’t shown his cards yet,” she said.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads