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.

The “one-in, one-out” agreement will see some of those who arrive in the UK illegally via the Channel sent straight back for the first time since Brexit, with Britain taking an equivalent number of migrants from France in return.

Keir Starmer sealed a “one in, one out” migrant-return deal with French President Emmanuel Macron that highlighted the limits for now of the UK Prime Minister’s efforts to reset relations with European nations five years after Brexit.