内容摘要：The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have criticised Reeves for proceeding with the planned trip rather than staying in the UK to address the cost of government borrowing and the slide in the value of the pound.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have criticised Reeves for proceeding with the planned trip rather than staying in the UK to address the cost of government borrowing and the slide in the value of the pound.

Le Pen has long sought to “normalise” National Rally (RN) in the eyes of the French people, rebranding it six years ago from her father’s old National Front.Jump back a few months to France’s snap parliamentary elections when

. Her mission appeared almost complete, even if it could only manage third place in the run-off round.Now in the dying days of 2024, she is taking a gamble on whether French voters will see her as acting in the national interest in bringing down a weakened government because she objects to its 2025 budget that aims to bring down France’s budget deficit from 6% of national output, or GDP.Barnier had already agreed to several of her demands on social security - but Le Pen decided it was not enough.

There are real economic risks for France, as well as real political risks for Le Pen in backing a left-sponsored vote of no confidence.After only three months in the job, Barnier has appealed to MPs to act in France’s greater interest, but Le Pen’s party leader Jordan Bardella has accused him of adopting a “strategy of fear”.

Le Pen’s colleagues are sensing Macron’s potential downfall.

RN adviser Philippe Olivier told Le Monde the president was “a fallen republican monarch, advancing with his shirt open and a rope around his neck up to the next dissolution [of parliament]”.In Mennecy, a sleepy town in the Essonne area south of Paris, Mathieu Hillaire was holding his final campaign event as Popular Front candidate. He is in a duel with RN candidate Nathalie Da Conceicao Carvalho, after the pro-Macron candidate pulled out to give her left-wing rival a better chance of blocking the far right.

Mr Hillaire said while the climate was less tense locally than elsewhere some people were still worried: “Of the voters that I’ve met, there are many who are scared of Jordan Bardella.”Many of RN’s policies focus on cutting the cost of living and tackling law and order, but their anti-immigration plans have raised particular concerns.

RN aims to give French citizens “national preference” over immigrants for jobs and housing, and wants to abolish the right to automatic French citizenship for children of foreign parents, if those children have spent five years in France from the age of 11 to 18.Dual citizens would also be barred from dozens of sensitive jobs.