Downing Street ‘incandescent’ after France closed border

A sign informs drivers that the French border crossing is closed.

(Image credit: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

published 22 December 2020

Downing Street officials were reportedly left “incandescent” by Emmanuel Macron’s decision to close France’s borders to British hauliers amid fears of the new Covid-19 strain.

A source in No. 10 told The Times that Downing Street staff could barely conceal their anger at the French plan, saying Macron “was trying to leverage the new strain of the coronavirus to apply pressure in Brexit negotiations”.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a masterâ€™s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.

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