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The National Front leader has been among the most prominent figures supporting the ban on the swimsuit – which was overturned by France’s highest court last month.

In an interview with CNN, the 48-year-old also threw her support behind Donald Trump in the US presidential election.

She said: “The burkini is a symptom. One of the multiple symptoms of the rise of fundamentalist Islam in France for many years.

“It is about demands that are designed to say ‘We Muslims, though not all are in agreement with this, we want to eat differently, we want to live differently, and we want to dress differently’.”