Macron state visit live: French president set to address parliament after royal welcome from King and Queen

MPs and peers have begun to gather in Parliament’s Royal Gallery for an address by French president Emmanuel Macron.

A platform with four chairs and a podium was erected in the southern end of the grand chamber, which features large murals of both the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo, two great 19th-century military defeats for the French at the hands of the British and their allies.

As they filed into the Royal Gallery, passing peers told members of press apocryphal stories that a previous French president requested the murals were covered during a past state visit.

Some peers attributed this to Charles de Gaulle, others to Jacques Chirac.

MPs sat on the right of the chamber facing the platform, while peers sat on the left.

The King and Queen showed Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte items in the Royal Collection exhibition in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.

The King will stress the partnership between France and the UK in the face of a “multitude of complex threats” at a state banquet in honour of French president Emmanuel Macron tonight.

“As friends and as allies, we face them together,” he will declare.

At a glittering banquet in Windsor Castle, the monarch will deliver a speech highlighting how “these challenges know no borders: no fortress can protect us against them this time”.

But he will tell Mr Macron that Britain and France can help lead the way in confronting threats relating to defence, technology and climate change, saying: “Our two nations share not only values, but also the tireless determination to act on them in the world.”

Britain’s relationship with France is as strong as it’s ever been, the prime minister’s official spokesperson has said, adding that he expected to make “good progress” during Emmanuel Macron’s time in the UK this week.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to use this week’s summit to try to get a ‘one-in-one-out’ deal on migration over the line, amid reports the agreement was close to collapse.

Asked whether there had been any progress on such an agreement, the spokesperson said: “Our joint work with the French is as strong as its ever been.

“You’ve seen their operational response along the northern coast intensifying in recent weeks.

“We continually talk and remain in constant contact on how our joint action can go further in ending the misery these gangs are inflicting.”

The carriage procession swept into Windsor Castle’s quadrangle where an array of military units were in position waiting to take part in the ceremonial welcome.

Central was the guard of honour formed by two of the British Army’s oldest regiments: Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards and F Company Scots Guards with the state colours of the regiments.

President Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte were joined by the King and Queen on a dais, with the Prince and Princess of Wales stood nearby.

As the president and King stood waiting for their wives to join them, they shared a few words and Mr Macron warmly touched the King’s back.

The pomp and pageantry featured the Military Knights of Windsor by the castle’s sovereign’s entrance, a detachment of the Household Cavalry nearby and outside the equerries’ entrance was the King’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard.