00:00What we have is the relationship between France and Britain, as strong as it has ever been.
00:06I think what you're going to see are three things.
00:08Firstly, on trade. We had over £100 billion worth of trade with France last year,
00:14and we're already seeing the announcement from EDF of taking a 12.5% stake in Sizewell Sea,
00:20which is good for jobs, good for investment here in the United Kingdom.
00:23Secondly, the relationship on defence and security, and particularly very close working
00:28between the Prime Minister and the President on the situation in Ukraine.
00:33And then thirdly, yes, the deepening of cooperation on illegal migration,
00:37which is absolutely critical, by the way, to tackling the issue of small boats in the English Channel.
00:40There is a broader point about pull factors which are absolutely critical.
00:44That is why this government has cracked down on illegal working.
00:48There's been over 7,000 arrests for that.
00:52But this is a complex issue. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
00:56And it's important that we are working, both with France, bilaterally, on our law enforcement cooperation,
01:03that we are working with other European countries to tackle upstream the roots of the people smugglers.
01:08I've been recently in Poland, recently in Bulgaria, seeing that happening.
01:12But also legislation here in the United Kingdom.
01:14We have legislation, our Borders Bill, that is giving our police and law enforcement equivalent powers
01:20to tackling counter-terrorism, to tackle people smuggling.
01:24That's the serious work of getting on and tackling this issue.
01:27Not performative politics, not gimmicks.
01:29Conservatives and Reform are both opposing that bill in the House of Commons.
01:33They should be explaining to people why they're doing that.
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