In the report, which was passed on to Quentin Lafay, the president’s speechwriter, on October 2 last year, Ms Pannier added: “Brexit will necessarily have potentially contradictory effects on bilateral cooperation. Both governments have insisted on the preservation and strengthening of the bilateral partnership.”

Mr Lafay replied and copied in another senior advisor to Mr Macron, Clément Beaune, to help shape the-then candidate’s policy.

In another email dated October 3, Mr Macron’s former defence advisor, François Heisbourg, discusses EU plans for closer integration of European defence forces in withering terms.

He delivers a scathing assessment of the “overly ambitious” proposals, comparing them unfavourably to the eurozone, saying they are “a bit like a single currency that would like to live without either a central bank or an economic government.”