Watch live: UK and Germany sign treaty on migrant smuggling crackdown

Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at Downing Street on Thursday (17 July).

The pair will sign a bilateral treaty - the biggest UK-German treaty since 1945 - focused on defence, energy, economic cooperation and migration.

As part of the friendship and cooperation treaty, Germany will announce that it is introducing a law that will make it illegal to facilitate authorised migration to the UK.

The law is expected to be passed by the end of the year and UK officials say the new legislation will give officials tools to target warehouses and storage facilities used by migrant smugglers.

The visit is Merz's first to the UK as chancellor, although he has already met Sir Keir several times, including on a trip to Ukraine where numerous world leaders gathered to call for a ceasefire.

The trip comes just one week after French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit, which saw the British and French leaders signed a “one in, one out” migrant return deal, which will see some of those who arrive in the UK illegally via the Channel sent straight back for the first time since Brexit.