France's ailing mainstream Right, the Republicans party, is reportedly looking to Boris Johnson for inspiration and planning a trip to London as it attempts to recover from near annihilation against President Emmanuel Macron.

Party leaders believe the Prime Minister’s "third way between globalists and populists" could bring salvation to the beleaguered party.

French conservatives used to be a pillar of the country’s two-party system along with the Socialists before Mr Macron dynamited the political landscape on a “neither Left nor Right” ticket, reaping victory in presidential elections and a landslide in the subsequent legislative vote.

The Republicans’ nosedive continued last year with a measly 8.4 per cent in European elections - down from 20.81 per cent in 2014 - after which their unpopular leader, Laurent Wauquiez threw in the towel.

As France limbers up for municipal elections in March and presidential ones in 2022, the Republicans, or LR, have been reportedly transfixed by Mr Johnson’s soaring political fortunes and are planning a fact-finding mission to London this spring to find out more from Conservative strategists.