1. News
  2. UK
  3. UK Politics

Macron-May talks live updates: Theresa May expected to discuss Brexit with French President at Sandhurst meeting

Live Blog

UK-France Summit to take place at military academy, with Brexit high on the agenda

Click to follow
Indy Politics

Key Points

Theresa May to announce UK will take more refugees from Calais

EU Withdrawal Bill passed by House of Commons

Taxpayers to foot £200bn bill for PFI contracts

Public backs calls for 25p 'latte levy'

Theresa May met Emmanuel Macron in Paris last June, soon after he was elected Yui Mok/PA Wire

Theresa May will welcome Emmanuel Macron to the UK later today, with discussions between the two leaders likely to focus on Brexit.

The French President and a number of his ministers will attend the UK-France Summit at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst.

Ahead of the visit, Ms May announced the UK will take more child refugees from Calais and spend £44.5m on additional security at the French port.

Britain will also deploy three RAF helicopters to Mali to support French counter-terrorism missions in Africa.

Elsewhere, the Government passed a significant milestone as MPs voted through the EU Withdrawal Bill last night.

Live Updates

A bit more on the UK-France Summit at Sandhurst this afternoon, where Theresa May is due to host Emmanuel Macron.
 
A number of other cabinet ministers will also attend in order to meet their French counterparts. Downing Street has confirmed  the following ministers will all be present:
 
Philip Hammond (Chancellor of the Exchequer)
Amber Rudd (Home Secretary)
Gavin Williamson (Defence Secretary)
Boris Johnson (Foreign Secretary)
Greg Clark (Business Secretary)
Matthew Hancock (Culture Secretary)
Penny Morduant (Defence Secretary)
More than 70 MPs have written to Matthew Hancock, the Culture Secretary, to raise concerns over the treatment of female BBC staff who speak out about gender pay equality.
 
It comes after several female journalists were told they could not report on pay equality if they had spoken out in support of Carrie Gracie, who resigned as the Corporation's China Editor over the issue.
 
In their letter, the MPs said: "These reports that members of staff at the organisation have been told that they cannot comment on these matters in public without this affecting their duties directly impacts on their capacity to be able to seek equal pay.

“Freedom of speech is vital to tackling these often difficult and sensitive issues – the debate over the BBC’s handling of this situation will set the tone for employers across the country in how they respond to equal pay claims."

The Government should "give a direction to the BBC to ensure the freedom of speech of staff in pursuit of equality of opportunity,” they added.

In the Commons chamber, Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House, has just wished the Speaker, John Bercow, a happy birthday for tomorrow.
 
"What better way to celebrate than by listening to tomorrow's private members bills?", she asked.
 
He can probably think of a few...
A Conservative MP has called for children to be made to sing the national anthem in school "at least once a week".
 
Andrew Rosindell told Sky News: "I'd like to see young people sing the national anthem in assembly at least once a week. It's a fantastic way of bringing everyone together, beacuse whatever our background, whatever our religion, whoever we are, the one thing that unites us and brings everyone together is the belief in our country and the fact we are all British."
 
He added: "Our Queen represents centuries of tradition and convention, she upholds our constitutiion and democracy, and she's treated with respect by the whole world. There's no head of state that can unite the people more than the Queen."
 
Mr Rosindell later admitted he only knew the first two verses of "God Save the Queen".
 
Labour MP Stella Creasy has called for a windfall tax to be introduced on PFI companies.
 
The Walthamstow MP previously led a campaign against payday loan companies and this morning said PFI firms "really are the legal loan sharks of the public sector". Speaking to BBC's Today programme, she said:

"It’s like a payday loan or a hire purchase agreement to build a school or a hospital and then run one. It’s a very expensive way to do it. And the question we all have to ask ourselves is what do we do next."

Ms Creasy said ministers should impose a windfall tax on PFI companies. She said:

"The one place where we do have leverage with them is on the tax they pay. They’ve also had a massive corporation tax bonus because corporation tax on a lot of these contracts [when they] were signed...was around 30 per cent. Under this government it has now dropped to 17 per cent. So we are estimating that some of them have saved around £190m in corporation tax payments alone. That is money that is owed to our public sector, and is money we could get back with a windfall tax."

Ahead of the UK-France Summit, Theresa May announced that the UK will take in more child refugees from Calais and will invest £44.5m in additional security at the French port. More from Rob Merrick:

Theresa May set to accept more child refugees from Calais camps

Theresa May is expected to agree to accept more child refugees stranded in Calais and will spend £44.5m to boost security at the French port, when she hosts Emmanuel Macron at a UK-France summit. The two leaders will sign a new treaty on Thursday to “complete” the Le Touquet agreement, which allows Britain and France to station border officials on each other’s soil, Paris said.
Welcome to The Independent's Westminster live blog. We'll be bringing you all the latest updates as Theresa May meets Emmanuel Macron, the French President, at the Sandhurst military academy.