EDINBURGH (Reuters) – If Britain votes to leave the European Union in a June referendum, France will allow migrants to move to Britain by ending border controls and roll out a red carpet for bankers fleeing London, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said.
“The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais and the financial passport would work less well,” Macron told the Financial Times ahead of an Anglo-French security summit.
Macron added that obstacles to bilateral trade could also be created, while an agreement which allows Britain to carry out border controls to withhold unwanted migrants on the French side of the Channel could also dissolve.
Echoing David Cameron’s invitation to French companies to relocate across the Channel when France raised taxes in 2012, Mr Macron said: “If I were to reason like those who roll out red carpets, I would say we might have some repatriations from the City of London.”
He added that the EU’s “collective energy would be spent on unwinding existing links, not re-creating new ones” if British voters rejected membership.
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