With just nine days remaining until May 19 - the date of Sir Keir Starmer's major EU "relations reset" summit, GB News has unearthed a document that shows how France threatened to cut off Britain four years ago as a row over fishing licences escalated.
The bombshell revelation comes as the Prime Minister plans to welcome scores of Brussels bigwigs and bureaucrats to London in a bid to seal a deal for closer security cooperation with the bloc.
But fears are rising over just what the 27-member bloc may demand of Britain in return for military ties.
Alongside a controversial youth mobility deal, the UK's neighbours across the waves - led by France - are looking to secure the right to British fish.
Liz Truss attracted scorn in 2022 when she said the "jury is out" on whether the French were "friend or foe".
But just a few weeks ago, her No10 successor-but-one Starmer was accused of "betraying our fisherman again" after The Sun revealed the "likely direction of travel" for Labour is to sacrifice fishing waters for access to Brussels's €150billion-valued defence fund.
The Prime Minister will welcome scores of Brussels bigwigs and bureaucrats to London in a bid to seal a deal for closer security cooperation with the bloc
PA
Now, an exclusive investigation by the UK Fisheries Campaign (UKFC) in association with Facts4EU and GB News has revealed how Truss was closer to the truth than her critics suggested - and its results could spell trouble for the May 19 summit.
On the evening of Tuesday October 27, 2021 - around 11 months before Truss came to power - the French Government issued a threatening ultimatum to its British counterpart - in French, on social media, and far from the prying eyes of the UK's Brexit negotiation team.
Emmanuel Macron's "attack puppy" Clement Beaune - who has labelled Brexit an "intellectual fraud" in the past - unleashed a two-page "press communique", packed with specific threats of French hostile action to begin on November 2 that year.
If Britain failed to cave to French demands over a handful of fishing licences, France would violate international law and hold the UK to ransom until it did.
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IN FULL - IN FRENCH - France's 'communique' to Britain
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Clement Beaune has labelled Brexit an 'intellectual fraud' in the past
REUTERS
The French ultimatum listed four primary threats to Britain - which, if followed through, would reignite hostilities between the two countries dormant since Napoleon was vanquished at Waterloo.
- Blocking all British fishing vessels from landing fish in French ports;
- Imposing strict controls at the border;
- Systematic surveillance and checking of all British boats in French waters;
- Imposing strict border controls on all lorries coming from or departing to the UK.
And a triple-pronged set of secondary actions could have seen Macron and Beaune create a foreign war to deflect attention from problems at home:
- Cutting off power supplies to the UK and Channel Islands as part of a second set of measures;
- The stopping of cooperation on all other subjects concerning relations between the UK and the EU;
- An urgent meeting of all EU countries about France's fishing dispute, "without delay".
As the UK Fisheries Campaign says, "what better target than Perfidious Albion, the old enemy? Attacking 'Les Rosbifs' is always going to play well with many parts of the French public".
At the next EU summit, France's Government tried to persuade its continental allies to adopt a bloc-wide stance condemning the UK over fishing rights
PAThe French threats never came to pass.
Lord Frost, Britain's Brexit negotiation chief, said after the communique: "It is very disappointing that France has felt it necessary to make threats late this evening against the UK fishing industry and seemingly traders more broadly."
At the next EU summit, France's Government tried to persuade its continental allies to adopt a bloc-wide stance condemning the UK over fishing rights - and taking action against the UK.
And with another major meeting around the corner, UKFC is raising fears that Macron and his negotiators could pour fuel on the embers of a so-called "guerre franco-brittanique" - and lead Starmer and Labour into committing to a "Brexit betrayal".
