NIGEL Farage has been “snubbed”; from meeting Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Britain this week.
In addition to his talks with the King and Sir Keir Starmer, the French President will also have discussions with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Lib Dem boss Sir Ed Davey.
While Reform only has four MPs, it is currently and is bookies’ favourite to be the next PM.
Deputy eader Richard Tice told The Sun: “This is an outrageous and deliberate snub.
“Reform is polling higher than all of the other parties, and by denying a meeting with Macron, the Establishment is shutting its eyes to the lights of the Reform train that is coming.
“If Macron was confident of his handling of the small boats issue, he would
Downing Street said that Buckingham Palace has organised Macron’s state visit, while the Elysée Palace remains in ultimate control of his diary.
Mr Farage has been highly critical of France’s role in stopping small boat launches from their beaches.
He has argued for terminating the £480million until they step up efforts to combat the illegal migration.
A new migration deal with France is set to be signed this week – with fears Labour will send them even more money.
Emmanuel Macron will arrive in Britain tomorrow for a three-day state visit culminating in a summit with Sir Keir on Thursday.
A “one in, one out”; agreement has still not been finalised and talks are expected to go down to the wire.
The proposal would see France agree to take back a small boat migrant in return for Britain accepting one of their asylum seekers.
Ministers hope this would break the smuggling gangs’ business model, although the Tories have branded it a “migrant merry-go-round”; gimmick.
No10 today also said they expected new French tactics of puncturing small boats with knives in shallow waters to be “operationalised soon”; as standard practice.
But the PM’s spokesman did not rule out more cash being handed to Paris in addition to the £480million already paid.
He said: “We’ll only ever provide funding that delivers for the priorities of the British public.
“That is always front and centre of our mind. But international problems of this scale require international solutions.”;
Macron’s visit – including an address to Parliament this afternoon and banquet at Windsor Castle tonight – risks being overshadowed if Channel crossings erupt on a sunny week.
Last night the Tories accused Sir Keir of “throwing good money after bad”;.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “We paid the French nearly half a billion pounds and they’ve basically done nothing.
“We’ve all seen photos of French police stand around while the illegal immigrants embark and they won’t intercept at sea either.”;
