France may follow America's lead by electing National Front leader Marine Le Pen as its next president because they have lost interest in whether politicians tell the truth, the country's leading philosopher has said.

Recent polls suggest Mrs Le Pen will win next spring’s first round of presidential elections, though she is then likely to be beaten by mainstream centre-right candidate Alain Juppé.

But Bernard-Henri Levy, who was once hailed in France as its greatest living public intellectual, said the upcoming election could be yet another case of the polls getting it wrong.

"If Trump is possible, then everything is possible," Mr Levy told the Telegraph. "Nothing, from now on, is unimaginable.