Britain's lack of contact with Marine Le Pen could hurt us, says Tory MP

Britain has had no contact with Marine Le Pen’s campaign despite the fact that she now has an outside chance of becoming the next French president.

Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay said: “It has been the longstanding policy of this and previous governments not to engage with the Front National, based on positions the party has adopted in the past. We keep this policy under review.”

The Tory chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, Crispin Blunt, questioned this today.

He told the Standard: “It must nearly always be in British interests to seek to influence political movements to adopt policies more acceptable to British norms. Some level of engagement, whether covert, overt or enthusiastic, would seem to be appropriate.”

He does not believe Ms Le Pen’s advance should in itself change the Government’s stance as Emmanuel Macron is the favourite to gain the keys to the Élysée Palace. However, Ms Le Pen won 21.5 per cent of the first-round vote, compared with Mr Macron’s 23.8 per cent, and beat the two traditional main party candidates: François Fillon, from the centre-Right, and Socialist Benoît Hamon.

British diplomats were left deeply embarrassed after failing to build ties with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year.

The then-Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, stole a march on the Government by meeting the US president-elect before any minister.

"On the decision not to engage with Ms Le Pen, Ukip peer Lord Stevens of Ludgate said: “We made the same mistake in the US leaving the UK behind the curve.”