Theresa May and François Hollande confirm that Calais border checks will stay

Migrants in Calais - Image credit: PA images

The Prime Minister has confirmed that the UK’s border checks in Calais will remain in place after Brexit.

After a meeting with French president François Hollande, Theresa May said there had been a “very clear” agreement that the arrangements will not change, despite David Cameron and others warning during the referendum campaign that leaving the EU could force an end to the deal.

“President Hollande and indeed interior minister [Bernard] Cazeneuve have both been very clear from their point of view that they wish the Le Touquet agreement to stay,” the Prime Minister said after talks with the French president in Paris.

“I know there are those who are calling for it to go. There are those within France who are calling for it to go… Le Touquet is of benefit I believe to both the UK and France and we are both very clear, Britain now having taken the decision to leave the EU, Le Touquet agreement should stay.”

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President Hollande also said he understood the new British government “needs time” before initiating Article 50, the formal process to begin negotiations on leaving the EU, but he added: “The sooner the better.”

He dashed the idea that the UK could stay in the single market without accepting free movement of people.

"It will be a choice facing the UK: remain in the single market and then assume the free movement that goes with it or to have another status," he said.

“None can be separated from the other. There cannot be freedom of movement of goods, free movement of capital, free movement of services if there isn’t a free movement of people.”

May’s trip to Paris was her second overseas visit as Prime Minister, after travelling to Berlin on Wednesday for talks with Angela Merkel.