French police raided the headquarters of Marine Le Pen's Front National party on Monday as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

The European parliament has accused Ms Le Pen, a French presidential candidate and MEP, of paying FN party staff with EU funds which it says should only be spent on European parliamentary assistants.

It has demanded Ms Le Pen pay back nearly €340,000 (£290,000) and, faced with her refusal to repay the money, has said it will start docking her salary in order to recover the funds.