Darmanin, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, will on Wednesday meet French border police deployed in Britain and visit the UK domestic intelligence service MI5.

On Thursday, he will meet UK counterpart Home Secretary Suella Braverman for what has been described as a “working meeting” on, “the fight against irregular immigration and our security cooperation”.

The numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats from France to England have proved a major bone of contention in post-Brexit relations
between Paris and London.

Britain has, on occasion, accused Paris of not doing enough to halt the migrants while French officials including Darmanin have sometimes angrily
lashed out at London.

Darmanin had an often acrimonious relationship with Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, under pressure to reduce the numbers crossing, forged a new deal with Macron in March that agreed to increase British
payments to fund more French police along the coast.

Darmanin is also due to travel to the British port of Dover on Thursday, said the official.

He plans to meet with the French border police and visit the “small craft operational command centre” and the “mechanisms in place to combat the irregular immigration and smuggling networks”.