Italy’s Matteo Salvini will convene a meeting of Europe’s populist and nationalist parties on Monday in a bid to build a bloc that can contest the European Parliament elections next month, but key figures from the far-Right will be absent.

The meeting in Milan is being billed as the launch of a major election campaign by Mr Salvini, who is deputy prime minister, interior minister and head of the hard-Right, anti-immigration League party.

The conference, themed “Towards a Europe of Common Sense”, will be held in a five-star hotel in the heart of Italy’s financial hub.

The aim is to build an alliance of likeminded parties that oppose immigration and further integration into EU institutions.

Mr Salvini, who has emerged as Italy’s most powerful politician since his election last year, is seeking to cast himself as the leader of a Eurosceptic grouping that includes the likes of Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban and Germany’s AfD party.