The UK’s ambassador to France has said his embassy will not be forging links with far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen because the UK government has a policy of not engaging with her party, the Front National (FN).

Ed Llewellyn, who was formerly David Cameron’s chief of staff in Downing Street, told MPs that although his staff were making contacts with other French presidential candidates, they did not have relations with the FN leader.

“With respect to the Front National, we have a policy of not engaging, there is a longstanding policy,” Llewellyn told the foreign affairs select committee. “That is the policy, which has been the policy for many years.”

Expressing surprise, committee chair Crispin Blunt asked Llewellyn: “If it is clear she is polling in second place so will make the run-off, shouldn’t that be … ?” Llwellyn said any change would be a “matter for ministers”.

Le Pen is widely expected to make the final round runoff in May against one of the other leading candidates, most likely either François Fillon, a centre-right Republican, , or Emmanuel Macron, an independent, barring an unlikely last-minute revival for the socialist candidate, who has not yet been selected.

Current polls show either Fillon or Macron is on course to beat Le Pen in the runoff as a result of of tactical voting by moderates.

Earlier Llwellyn confirmed that his team in Paris were in touch with the other mainstream candidates. “We know who the candidate is on the centre-right, the candidate is Monsieur Fillon, obviously we have contacts with him and his team,” he said.

“On the left we don’t know who the candidate is going to be. We will know the answer on 29 January after the second round of primaries … my team [is] in touch with people across the picture on the left.”

The UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, and other members of the UK government faced criticism after the election of Donald Trump for being insufficiently prepared for the Republican’s victory, which the government denied.

Trump’s team raised concerns with Ukip’s Nigel Farage about the hostile comments made about his presidential campaign by members of the British government, including Boris Johnson, according to Farage.

Le Pen, who has long championed Trump, has led efforts to detoxify her far-right party of the antisemitic and homophobic language that was commonplace under her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the 1990s.

Though she now focuses on French protectionism, including a desire to quit the Euro and the EU and anti-immigration policies, her anti-Muslim remarks have seen her charged with hate speech. A court acquitted her in 2015, however, saying her comparison between seeing Muslims praying on the streets and the Nazi occupation was permitted under free speech laws.