French is a “useless language” and the nation’s achievements are “long past”, Jeremy Paxman has claimed, in a brutal attack on our European neighbours.

The former Newsnight host said that middle-class Britons should end their “forelock-tugging” deference to France’s haute cuisine and high-speed trains, as he claimed that the centuries-old battle between the two nations had been comprehensively decided in Britain’s favour.

Writing in the Financial Times, Paxman said French was a “useless language”. He wrote: “Let us block our ears to the middle-class English and their forelock-tugging deference to France’s highly subsidised rural living, high-speed trains and ‘marvellous food’.