Theresa May stressed the importance of an early deal on EU citizens’ rights after Brexit during talks with the French prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, at Downing Street.



The prime minister said she was “delighted” to welcome Cazeneuve and that they had “worked so well together” when she was home secretary and he was France’s interior minister.

“It’s an interesting time, obviously for the UK, as we prepare to trigger article 50 for leaving the European Union.

“But there are many issues on which the UK and France have been working very well and our bilateral relationship is very strong and I look forward to being able to develop that across a number of areas, including, of course, our defence and security.”

Following the meeting, a Downing Street spokeswoman said May and Cazeneuve had spoken about a range of bilateral issues as well as foreign policy and Brexit.

“The prime minister was clear that, while the UK is leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe, and they talked about the importance of coming to an early agreement on the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU,” she said.

“They agreed on the need to maintain our close cooperation on security and defence, including through Nato. They discussed how we can work together to address the shared global challenges we face, including migration, the situation in Syria and in Ukraine, and the threat of terrorism.”

Before the meeting, May sought to reassure France that the UK would not seek to cherry-pick the parts of EU membership it wanted to keep.

She said her aim to leave the single market, but strike a free trade deal with the EU, including the “greatest possible access” to the trade bloc, did not amount to selectively choosing the best aspects of membership.

After May set out her Brexit strategy last month, several leading EU figures warned the UK it would not be able to cherry-pick in negotiating a new relationship with Brussels.

But in an article for French newspaper Le Figaro, she said: “As we leave the EU, we will seek the greatest possible access to the European single market through a new, comprehensive, bold, ambitious free trade agreement.

“This cannot, however, mean retaining membership of the single market. [French] President [François] Hollande and other European leaders have been very clear that this would mean accepting the four freedoms of goods, capital, services and people and I respect their position.

“Britain understands that EU leaders want to continue with the process of integration. We do not, to borrow the phrase, seek to cherry-pick which bits of membership we desire.”

May also highlighted French interest in a good Brexit deal, pointing out that the UK is France’s fifth-largest export market with bilateral trade worth more than €50bn last year.

“UK companies are responsible for an estimated 230,000 jobs in France, and French companies for about 370,000 jobs in the UK,” she said.

May said the UK would remain an “open and tolerant” country and that French people would “always be welcome in Britain”.