The niece of National Front figurehead Marine Le Pen has announced that she is stepping down from politics.

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen told her aunt and several relatives of her decision on Tuesday, which they accepted, French media reported.

The 27-year-old, who many believed might lead the National Front party after Marine Le Pen's defeat on Sunday, said she took the decision 'for personal reasons'.

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 27, announced she is retiring from politics to family members on Tuesday, calling it a 'personal decision'

Ms Maréchal-Le Pen was one of only two National Front lawmakers and a well-known party figure, though had said she didn't want to spend her career in politics

Ms Maréchal-Le Pen made the decision because she wanted 'a change of life' and 'more privacy', according to Le Parisien.

She will not stand for reelection in June and is standing down as the party's southeastern region president.

FN sources today speculated that Ms Maréchal-Le Pen wanted more time to spend with her daughter after divorcing businessman Matthieu Decosse last year.

'Marion is still very young, and has lots of ambitions in life,' said one source. 'She will officially announce her retirement from politics on Wednesday, but still has lots of professional plans.'

Marine Le Pen issued a statement, saying: 'I respect her choice. I know how demanding political life can be.'

Party officials did not immediately confirm the information. Senior party official Bruno Gollnisch told reporters it was on the cards.

'I think it's in the works, but I will let her announce it if she wants to,' he said.

Speaking on the Paris Premiere TV channel on March 30th, Ms Maréchal-Le Pen said: 'I have always said that I will not only do politics.

When first elected at 22 Ms Maréchal-Le Pen was France's youngest ever MP, and sat to the political right of her aunt, attending gay marriage rallies while Marine stayed away

It was thought that Ms Maréchal-Le Pen might take over the reigns of National Front in order to oppose Emmanuel Macron (pictured with Francois Hollande) at the next election

'The whole aim now is do things at the right time. I do not wish to harm my party's struggle. Now I know that everything I do will be analysed, and perceived to be a war with Marine.'

Ms Maréchal-Le Pen is one of only two National Front lawmakers in the outgoing parliament and one of the best-known figures in the party.

When she was first elected at the tender age of 22, Ms Maréchal-Le Pen made history as France's youngest-ever MP.

A mother-of-one, she sat politically to the right of her aunt, who tried to soften the National Front's appeal in recent years to make it more acceptable to centrist voters.

There has been a Le Pen at the head of the FN since its foundation in 1972 by the convicted racist and anti-Semite, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marion's grandfather.

Mr Le Pen, now 88, remains the honorary president of the party, and an MEP, and is known to be far closer to Marion than Marine.

Ms Maréchal-Le Pen was seen as the ideological successor to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front's founder, and was known to be closer to him than Marine

Before the election, Jean-Marie (left) had criticised Marine, saying she was unfit to lead and that Ms Maréchal-Le Pen would have been a better candidate

He said before the presidential election that he considered Marine unfit to be head of state and thought that Marion would have been a better choice of candidate.

In 2013 Ms Maréchal-Le Pen attended anti-gay marriage rallies while her aunt stayed away, throwing her weight behind what she termed the 'traditional family'.

She also insisted that everybody – especially the five million Muslims living in France – should accept the ‘true French identity’ rooted in Christianity.

During one speech in Toulon, a Mediterranean city with a large number of citizens of Arab descent, she said Muslims could only be French 'if they follow customs and a lifestyle that has been shaped by Greek and Roman influence and 16 centuries of Christianity.'

'We are not a land of Islam,' she said. 'In our country, we don't wear djellaba clothing, we don't wear a veil and we don't impose cathedral-sized mosques.'

A graduate of Sorbonne University, she was seen as an alternative to the political establishment of men in suits.

She was also a huge PR asset to the party, though she had no formal media training and once failed to name a single area of policy she wanted to focus on when quizzed by a journalist in a local election.