Good morning. Nothing is new in life or politics, and the concern that people feel about small boats crossing the Channel now is minimal compared to the alarm that Britons must have felt in 1066 as the Duke of Normandy's invasion force arrived in England. Almost 1,000 years later, the horror is long forgotten and Andy Burnham was with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at the British Museum last night to celebrate the Bayeux Tapestry as "the best possible symbol" of the "entente amicale" between France and the UK, as King Charles put it in a speech last night.
This morning Burnham is hosting Macron for political talks in Downing Street and another fleet of small boats will be on the agenda. As reports, ahead of the meeting No 10 has announced that the UK and France have increased the number of police on the French coast to stop so-called "mega dinghies" from launching across the English Channel. Rajeev says:
While the combined total number of boat crossings over the summer months has dropped to its lowest since 2019, smugglers appear to have started loading more people onto fewer, larger vessels. Dinghies are now being launched as far as 150 miles southwest of Calais.
Downing Street said measures to counter the trend include deploying a surge team of 45 officers to France's western beaches in the coming weeks, almost tripling resources in the area.
A specialist French intelligence and judicial team seeking to root out and prosecute smuggling networks has grown from 18 to 30 officers.
And a new 75-strong unit focused on curbing crossings has begun operations in northern France, taking the total number of officers to nearly 1,050.
Home Office officials have recently claimed that 15-metre boats which can carry 230 people are being launched because hardline tactics used by French police and funded by the UK are working.
The BBC reported on Thursday that people smugglers are being forced to work together and use larger boats, and have increased their prices for a Channel journey from €1,300 to €1,700 (£1120 to £1460) over the last year.
Critics are saying both governments should be doing more.
There are other important issues on the agenda for the talks too. has a preview here.
We will also be hearing a lot today from the Conservatives and Reform UK. Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech on defence, and how the Conservatives would fund a rise in defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.
11am: Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, speaks on a panel at the Reform conference's 'business day'. Suella Braverman, the education spokesperson, is also speaking at an event. The main conference starts tomorrow.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, arrives at Downing Street for talks with Andy Burnham.
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