Emmanuel Macron is an ardent fan of the French team Olympique Marseille. Photo: LUDOVIK MARIN/AFP
Emmanuel Macron will be keen to break the ice with Keir Starmer when the two men meet at the French presidential palace on Tuesday, presenting the Labor leader with a pair of cufflinks bearing the Elysee Palace logo, The Telegraph understands.
< The Labor leader this weekend said he would use the meeting to "try to get a much better deal for Britain" with the EU, and is expected to offer the French president an Arsenal shirt. Mr Macron is an ardent fan of the French team Olympique Marseille.
The Telegraph understands the Elysee Palace initially considered offering Sir Keir a book about the presidential palace, but decided it was too boring.
Sir Keir's team said he «occasionally» wore cufflinks. Mr Macron, on the other hand, does this often and prefers to wear cufflinks with the French blue, white and red cockade — the famous emblem of the French Revolution.
The cufflinks that Sir Keir will receive are said to be «French» Republic.»
Senior French sources last week admitted that the Elysée tête-à-tête was a «breach of protocol» because Sir Keir, whom the French president does not know, does not belong to Macron's centrist «political family.»
Sir Keir Starmer is an Arsenal fan
Cross-channel ties have warmed under Rishi Sunak, a former banker like Macron, and their relationship has come to be called «some say bromance.
Ahead of her meeting with Sir Keir, Paris said she was interested in hearing details of the Labor leader's «core policies.»
The Labor leader was expected to discuss his plan to join a pan-European a quota system to distribute migrants on condition that the bloc, including France, accept the «return» of migrants who enter the UK illegally — thousands on small boats across the English Channel.
He is also expected to talk about a potential renegotiation of the post-Brexit trade and cooperation agreement negotiated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, due to be renegotiated in 2025.
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