Politics Explained: Will Starmer meeting with Macron help him become prime minister?

I n a move that has been widely, and appropriately, reported as a ‘coup’, Keir Starmer is to make his most high-profile appearance yet on the world stage when he attends a formal meeting with the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron , next week. Although heads of state and governments do sometimes meet with opposition politicians, the French are normally sticklers for protocol and status, and the rules are only rarely relaxed. Macron was diplomatic enough to inform Rishi Sunak of the forthcoming meeting when the pair were in Delhi for the G20 last week. Given how much store Sunak places on warming relations with France and the EU, and his previous successful summit meeting with Macron last March, the news may have come as something of a disappointment.