Emmanuel Macron invites Theresa May to his holiday home in the south of France for Brexit talks

Theresa May, pictured, will meet Emmanuel Macron on Friday for talks

Emmanuel Macron today invited Theresa May to his holiday home in the south of France in a fresh attempt to end the Brexit deadlock.

The French President’s surprise invitation emerged just hours after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt held talks on Brexit in Paris.

An Elysee Palace source said Mr Macron and Mrs May would meet at Fort Bregancon near Toulon on Friday evening.

The meeting will be followed by a private dinner between Macron and his wife Brigitte and May and her husband Philip.  

Downing Street sources told MailOnline the meeting followed similar talks with other EU leaders in recent weeks, including with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. 

The leaders will focus on Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers earlier this month. The controversial plan almost brought down her Government as Boris Johnson and David Davis both resigned in protest.

Mrs May make the stop in France on her way home from her holiday in Italy.

She was due back in Britain to resume work in her constituency and Downing Street before a second break in Switzerland after World War 1 commemorations in Amiens in August. 

Emmanuel Macron today invited Theresa May (file image) to his holiday home in the south of France as hopes rose of a breakthrough in the Brexit deadlock

Emmanuel Macron today invited Theresa May (file image) to his holiday home in the south of France as hopes rose of a breakthrough in the Brexit deadlock

What is in Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint?

These are some of the key features of the Chequers plan being pushed by the UK government:

  • A new free trade area in goods, based on a ‘common rulebook’ of EU regulations necessary. This will require the UK to commit by treaty to match EU rules
  • ‘Mobility’ rules which will end automatic freedom of movement, but still allow UK and EU citizens to travel without visas for tourism and temporary work. It will also enable businesses to move staff between countries. 
  • Continued UK participation in and funding of European agencies covering areas like chemicals, aviation safety and medicines
  • A ‘facilitated customs arrangement’, removing the need for customs checks at UK-EU ports. It would allow differing UK and EU tariffs on goods from elsewhere in the world to be paid at the border, removing the need for rebates in the vast majority of cases. In theory this allows Britain to sign trade deals.
  • Keeping services – such as banking or legal support – outside of the common rule book, meaning the UK is completely free to set its own regulations. It accepts it will mean less trade in services between the UK and EU. 
  • Continued co-operation on energy and transport, a ‘common rulebook’ on state aid and commitments to maintain high standards of environmental and workplace protections. 
  • A security deal allowing continued UK participation in Europol and Eurojust, ‘co-ordination’ of UK and EU policies on foreign affairs, defence and development.
  • Continued use of the EHIC health insurance card. 

Speaking in Paris this morning before he held crunch talks to try and save the Prime Minister’s Chequers blueprint for Brexit, Mr Hunt pleaded with the French people not ‘to confuse Brexit with right-wing populism’.

Instead he insisted that a deal was just as important to the UK’s European allies as it was to the UK – but warned no deal could happen by accident if the EU thought it could wait for Britain to back down.

Mr Hunt appealed for France and Germany to intervene and overrule the EU Commission to get a deal before exit day in March.  

Following his talks in Paris today Mr Hunt will fly on to Vienna to try and build support for Theresa May’s Brexit plan, which has already been rejected in Brussels.

Speaking live in both French and English on the France Inter radio station, Mr Hunt admitted that he originally wanted to stay in the EU. 

But he insisted Brexit is ‘not a problem for me because it’s a democratic decision by the people of England’. 

Mr Hunt said: ‘But what worries me now is the real risk of a Brexit without agreement, by accident – a No Deal – because we the English Government propose a solution but I believe there are those in France who are waiting for a change of line from Great Britain that won’t come.

‘A Brexit without agreement will be a tragedy for Europe – difficult economically as you have already heard but we will find a way to prosper.’

Referring to his French counterpart Mr Hunt said: ‘What worries me more is that simply changing the feeling of the British people towards Europe, with a profound impact on our international partnerships so important for international law and it’s that why it’s so important to talk with Jean-Yves Le Drian at a very important historical moment.’

A no deal Brexit would only be welcomed by Vladimir Putin, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured in Paris today with foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian) has warned

A no deal Brexit would only be welcomed by Vladimir Putin, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured in Paris today with foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian) has warned

Mr Hunt and Mr Le Drian held talks on the Prime Minister's Chequers blueprint for Brexit as Mr Hunt pleaded with the French people not 'to confuse Brexit with right-wing populism'

Mr Hunt and Mr Le Drian held talks on the Prime Minister’s Chequers blueprint for Brexit as Mr Hunt pleaded with the French people not ‘to confuse Brexit with right-wing populism’

Mr Hunt said the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin (file image) wanted splits in Europe and would seize on a failure to strike a Brexit deal 

Mr Hunt said the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin (file image) wanted splits in Europe and would seize on a failure to strike a Brexit deal 

Mr Hunt said he would be spending Tuesday morning discussing defence issues with Mr Le Drian, France’s Foreign Secretary, at his office in Paris, and particularly the threat posed by Russia.

Hunt in plea to Paris and Berlin on Brexit  

Jeremy Hunt issued a plea to France and Germany to overrule the EU and ensure a Brexit deal today as held crunch talks in Paris. 

The Foreign Secretary warned the EU Commission was wrong to think Britain would ‘blink’ and back down from Brexit before the end of negotiations.

He warned the continued stalemate meant a rising risk of no deal – something he said would only be welcomed by the Kremlin.

Mr Hunt made the case for Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers – but only at the loss of Boris Johnson and David Davis as Brexit Secretary during explosive clashes three weeks ago.

Mr Hunt told the Standard today: ‘The probability of No Deal is increasing by the day until we see a change of approach from the European Commission who have this view that they just need to wait and Britain will blink.

‘That is just a profound misunderstanding of us as a nation. ‘

‘We have to look at the aggression by Russia, and we have to recognise that this is a very unstable period in world history and we need to be working together, across the world…

‘There’s Crimea, there’s also the fact that we had chemical weapons on the streets of England, something we believe was authorised by the Russians.

‘France has stood shoulder to shoulder with Britain on those kinds of issues….I think our responsibility to the safety and security of the world, is to preserve and develop our friendship with France, not to by accident break this friendship, that’s the last thing we want…’

When Mr Hunt said it ‘took two to Tango’, it was suggested that Britain might ‘step on the foot’ of U.S. President Donald Trump as it pursued a strong working relationship with Europe.

Mr Hunt replied: ‘He can step on anyone’s foot, so we’re learning, but the reality is that underneath all of that there are values that we share, with the French and with the Americans, and this is a time when we have to figure out what is the right geo-strategic direction, and frankly if we end up with No Deal, the only person rejoicing will be Vladimir Putin.’ 

Mr Hunt is holding talks with French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (pictured today) in Paris to try and salvage Theresa May's Brexit plan

Mr Hunt is holding talks with French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (pictured today) in Paris to try and salvage Theresa May’s Brexit plan

The visit comes a day after Mr Hunt was in Beijing for his first high profile moment on the world stage (he is pictured with China's Premier Li Keqiang yesterday) 

The visit comes a day after Mr Hunt was in Beijing for his first high profile moment on the world stage (he is pictured with China’s Premier Li Keqiang yesterday) 

Will she dip a toe in pool of controversy?  

Theresa May’s visit to Emmanuel Macron’s summer residence means she may be one of the first guests to enjoy his controversial new presidential pool.

Mr Macron and wife Brigitte demanded a swiming pool at Fort Bregancon – at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds – to avoid photographs being taken of them at the resort’s private beach.

The Elysee Palace confirmed the five-figure expenditure would be met by the French taxpayer, even though the Riviera retreat is just feet from the waters of the Mediterranean. Free-standing swimming pools cost upwards of £10,000, and in many cases closer to £100,000.

Theresa May have been invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to join him and his wife at his offical retreat in Fort Bregancon, pictured

Theresa May have been invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to join him and his wife at his offical retreat in Fort Bregancon, pictured

Olivier Faure of the French Socialist Party condemned it as a ‘cruel symbol’, adding that Mr Macron ‘further whittles away housing benefit for the poor and at the same time builds a swimming pool’.

Meanwhile, Mrs Macron is spending around £90,000 in taxpayers’ money on renovating the palace, including artwork and a 1,200-piece porcelain dinner set.

Fort Bregancon is a 17th-century fortress near Toulon, linked to the mainland by a causeway. It has been the official retreat of the French president since 1968.

Francois Hollande, Mr Macron’s predecessor, stopped using it after he and then-girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler were snapped in their swimwear. She successfully sued French media for invasion of privacy.

 

 



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