The door is "always open" for the UK to change its mind about Brexit, the French President has declared as he met Theresa May.

Emmanuel Macron appeared to hold out the prospect of allowing Britain to re-enter the EU as the pair held a joint news conference in the garden of the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Mr Macron said: "Of course the door remains open, always open, until the negotiations come to an end."

But he stressed that "once the negotiations have started, we should be well aware that it will be more difficult to move backwards".

Their first bilateral meeting had the uncomfortable backdrop of Mrs May - abroad for the first time since losing her majority - meeting the President flush from his recent election victory and on the brink of big gains for his party in parliament.


It comes as the UK's Brexit strategy has been thrown into doubt by the shock election result, with pressure on Mrs May from factions within and outside her party to water down her threat to withdraw Britain from the EU with "no deal".

:: Analysis - Strong and stable? We're a long way from that

The Prime Minister insisted that the Brexit negotiations - due to start next week - would start on time and that there would be no requests for a delay from the British side.

Another embarrassing flutter for the PM

But she dodged a question on whether she now intended to pursue a "soft Brexit", saying: "We want to maintain a close relationship and close partnership with the EU and individual member states."

She added that after the election there was a "unity of purpose that having voted to leave the EU, that the Government gets on and makes a success of it".

The President - asked if he believed that is what Mrs May intended as the leader of a minority Government - said it was for her to comment on the UK's intentions.

Mrs May is said to be close to formalising a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party, which has reservations about leaving the EU Customs Union and would refuse a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

The summit in Paris was intended to set out a joint approach to tackling terrorism and online radicalisation, including levying hefty fines on the tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for failing to remove extremist content.

Lighthearted banter after brutal election

Echoing some of the rhetoric from British ministers about the need to allow the security services to access encrypted messages, Mr Macron said the intelligence agencies must be able to access digital content "no matter where it is located".

The two leaders met for a working dinner at the President's official residence, dining on duck liver pate with summer truffles, steamed monkfish in Provence rose wine with vegetables, and traditional cake with forest fruits.

They exchanged warm greetings on the steps of the Palace, before later attending an England-France international friendly at the Stade de France, with a minute's silence to commemorate those killed in the Manchester and London attacks.

Both leaders stressed their "solidarity" in the face of terrorism. Mrs May said that "nowhere is our co-operation closer than in the area of defence and security", with both countries leading international efforts to attack Islamic State with airstrikes.

Earlier on Tuesday, the German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said in an interview with Bloomberg that if the UK changed its mind on leaving the EU, "of course they would find open doors" in Europe.