It is Keir Starmer’s misfortune that he arrives in Paris today for a meeting with Emmanuel Macron at the moment Europe faces one of its gravest challenges of recent years. More than 11,000 migrants have landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the last week, an unprecedented influx that has exposed the deep divisions within the EU.

Labour’s leader reportedly wants to discuss how to better improve relations between Britain and the EU, but he may not have the full attention of the French president. Not only is Europe arguing amongst itself over how to tackle the migrant crisis, but Macron’s own party, Renaissance, is also at loggerheads over the content of the government’s impending Immigration and Asylum Bill.

Starmer believes his meeting with Macron is ‘a significant PR coup’

More than 130,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Italy this year, numbers not seen since the great migrant crisis of 2015. Consequently, Germany is now refusing to accept any more migrants from Italy, and Belgium recently announced it will no longer accommodate single migrant men, a decision that has since been suspended following a legal challenge.

That is a microcosm of the rancour within the 27 member states of the EU the bloc that Starmer wishes Britain was still part of.

According to Politico, which broke the news of the trip last week, Starmer believes his meeting with Macron is ‘a significant PR coup’ as it will make him ‘appear statesmanlike’.

That may have been true a few years ago, in the summer of 2017, when Macron appeared on the front cover of the Economist walking on water. That was one of many examples of the world’s press – particularly the Anglophone media – fawning over the newly-elected president, the youngest in the history of the 5th Republic. He was showcased as the fresh and sophisticated face of centrist civility, the antidote to the populist abomination of Brexit and Trump.

But Macron’s lustre has long since faded, at home and abroad. On his watch, French influence in central Africa has collapsed to the point where the Republic’s ambassador to Niger is today being held hostage in his embassy; on his watch, relations with former important allies such as Morocco have deteriorated to such a degree that the king of Morocco stalled over accepting France’s help in the wake of a devastating earthquake this month; on his watch, France was humiliated by Vladimir Putin as the rest of the West looked on; on his watch, France has been embroiled in ugly diplomatic spats with Italy, Hungary, Brazil and Poland.

Keir Starmer’s world tour has taken in a meeting with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (Credit: Getty Images)

Then there’s the state of France itself, where Macron’s approval rating is under 30 per cent and where he was roundly booed by his people when he showed his face on the opening day of the Rugby World Cup.

If Starmer seeks advice from Macron on how to govern then God help Britain. Poverty, violent crime and sexual assaults have rocketed in France in the last few years, as has illegal immigration and the cost of living.

Strange then, that the leader of the Labour party should be so keen for a ‘bromance’ with Macron, the former Rothschild banker, the ‘president of the Rich’, as he’s been dubbed by the French left. But Starmer is like every 21st century left-wing leader: far more interested in the Progressives than in the Proletariat. He proclaimed his belief in the ‘Progressive movement’ at a left-wing summit hosted by Justin Trudeau in Montreal at the weekend.

Is Macron a Progressive? No one in France is quite sure. During campaigning for the 2017 presidential election, his slogan was ‘Neither Left, Neither Right’. So what does he stand for? Six years on and the French are still none the wiser.

But in that regard he has something in common with Starmer, a man famous for his U-turns and abandoned policies, or as Rishi Sunak phrased it a few weeks ago, a politician who ‘is quite happy to jump on whatever bandwagon is coming along’.  If Starmer does become PM next year he’ll find Macron on most of the bandwagons he boards. They can keep each other company on the road to nowhere.