Esther Webber
@estwebber
Senior foreign and defence correspondent @POLITICOEUROPE. DM / ✉️[email protected] / [email protected]
Macron will give an address from the Royal Gallery later. Tapestries were used to cover paintings of Waterloo and Trafalgar battles during a visit by Charles de Gaulle to parliament in 1960, but Macron will not be spared.
Macron and the King have a friendship which underpins this visit. Follows Macron's tribute to the Queen, the King's cancelled state visit to France due to riots, and the Macrons' 2023 banquet at the Palace of Versailles, where they served Pol Roger's Sir Winston Churchill cuvée.
Modi plans UK visit next week to sign India trade deal The trip would be the Indian PM’s first visit to the U.K. in seven years. politico.eu/article/narend…
EXCL: Council tax cuts are “not going to happen” in Reform UK-run authorities because the pressures on social care are too great, DOGE chief Zia Yusuf has told POLITICO He went further than Nigel Farage, who has said it wouldn’t be a priority politico.eu/article/nigel-…
As we reported this morning, frequent travellers to Germany will get to use e-gates while everyone else has to wait
Ahead of Starmer-Merz press conference this afternoon, the government has announced that Germany agreed to a phased opening of e-gates for the over 3 million Brits visiting each year
Starmer and Merz find their happy place: War Latest by @estwebber politico.eu/article/keir-s…
BREAKING: The British military is responsible for a data leak that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk of death - and successive governments have spent years fighting to keep it secret using an unprecedented superinjunction
Shortly after his election to Parliament in 1962, Tam Dalyell used his new position to intervene in a local issue. He received an irate letter from a local Councillor who instructed: ‘Westminster, your business. Dog shit, mine.’
Germany plans to buy 15 more F-35 fighter jets from the US, several people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. But talks between Berlin and Washington, which have not been publicly announced, come at a delicate moment for European defense cooperation. politico.eu/article/german…
🩴 IN LONDON PLAYBOOK PM TONIGHT ... 🚤 Inside the PM/Macron presser via @estwebber 🍽️ Inside the Chris Philp posho lunch via @bethanymrd 🧀 Keir Starmer presses the flesh with MPs in the "cheese room" 🖇️ Link in next post
Macron says Brexit has made illegal migration worse "Since Brexit, there is no migration deal with the EU. There is no legal route to come to the UK and no way to return migrants, this is an incentive to cross the Channel.”
“It's bang, bang, kick a man while you're down.” How a new draft of a delayed environmental scheme could create fresh headaches for Labour one year out from a crucial set of Senedd elections politico.eu/article/wales-…
“I was under the impression [the investment] was going to be a 20% government stake in Sizewell C,” an industry figure puzzled. “But they’ve taken a 50 percent stake now — and are what, going to diminish that to a final investment decision? This is not a normal model.”
As Emmanuel Macron sweeps into London for this week’s Anglo-French summit, both parties are looking to celebrate a great big nuclear partnership. But behind the glamor of a state visit, not everyone is convinced the UK has actually landed a good deal. 🔗 ow.ly/x9zX50WmiFH