French Front National leader considers whether to travel to London for visit that would discomfit official Vote Leave group

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National, is considering coming to the UK to campaign for the country to leave the EU in the run-up to June’s referendum.



Le Pen’s office confirmed to the Guardian that a visit was “under consideration” before the 23 June vote.

Should the trip take place, Le Pen would support campaigning by Janice Atkinson, a former Ukip member of the European parliament who defected to join Le Pen’s far-right alliance.

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Atkinson, an MEP for south-east England, was expelled from Ukip last March over allegations that a member of her staff tried to inflate an expenses bill. Police looked into the matter but decided to take no action.

The mainstream Vote Leave camp would be likely to keep their distance from Le Pen. Michael Gove, the justice secretary, this week mocked what he called fear-mongering about “bogeymen” by the Remain camp.

He cited supposed warnings about “an alliance of Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump, emboldened by our weakness, [who] would, like some geopolitical equivalent of the Penguin, Catwoman and the Joker, be liberated to spread chaos worldwide and subvert our democracy”.

Nigel Farage, who in 2014 said Ukip would not join any alliance with Le Pen’s party because of the FN’s “prejudice and antisemitism”, has however said Le Pen has “some good qualities” and is “achieving remarkable things”.

Le Pen is running again for French president next year and polls suggest she could easily beat a mainstream candidate to reach a second round run-off. One poll this week found 74% of French people believe she will reach the final round.

She has seized on the UK’s EU referendum to boost her own critical stance on Brussels. Her anti-immigration and anti-euro party has said it would seek to renegotiate the terms of France’s EU membership if it took power, and hold a referendum on the EU.

Le Pen has hailed the UK’s referendum, saying she thinks the country will vote to leave. “That will prove it’s possible to live outside the European Union. You’re either free or you aren’t,” Le Figaro quoted her as saying. She warned that the “strategy of terror” by pro-EU campaigners in the UK no longer worked.

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She told a conference in Romania this weekend: “The British people will vote in two months; it’s a key moment in European history.” She said every European country should also be able to decide whether or not to stay in the EU.

“I want each people to be able to have their say on the subject … I hope that the French will also have a similar [exercise],” she added. “There has to be another model of cooperation between peoples; their history, sovereignty and freedom has to be respected.”

Le Pen has said that David Cameron’s renegotiation deal with Brussels earlier this year marked “the beginning of the end of the EU”.

Le Pen’s pledge to pull France from the eurozone is seen by some as an election sticking point, putting off voters on the mainstream right, such as pensioners or business leaders, who might otherwise be tempted to vote for the FN. But despite debate within the party, the policy remains.