By James Hanson

There’s a crisis across the channel - and this time it’s got nothing to do with small boats.

France has been plunged into fresh political chaos after the government of Francois Bayrou was booted from office after losing a vote of confidence in the National Assembly. It means President Macron now needs to appoint a fifth prime minister in less than two years - or call snap elections.

Bayrou had, rightly, been proposing spending cuts to bring down France’s staggering national debt. He’d spent months warning of the "existential" threat to France if it didn’t address its €3.4 trillion liability. In his 2026 budget, he proposed scrapping two national holidays and freezing welfare payments and pensions, aiming to save €44 billion. And yet both the hard left and the hard right rejected Bayrou’s proposals - causing his government to collapse within just nine months of taking office.

The UK, of course, is no stranger to a high turnover of PMs. As such, it is hard not to feel some relief that this time it’s the French, not us, in a shambles. But make no mistake, there should be no room for schadenfreude. The problems facing France are the same as those facing Britain: unsustainable debt, low........

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