The president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the National Rally (RN), will speak at Reform UK’s party conference later this year.
Founded by Jean Le Pen and formerly known as the National Front, the RN is now led by his daughter Marine and has become the anti-immigration, eurosceptic, hard-right wing of French politics.
The Spectator reports that the party’s president Jordan Bardella met Nigel Farage for lunch last December, where they discussed how to stop small boats crossing the channel.
The publication has confirmed that Bardella will be the “headline guest” of Reform’s party conference, due to be held in Birmingham in September.
Bardella is scheduled to speak on the Friday of the three-day conference.
Confirming the story, a source told the Spectator: “Jordan and Nigel get along extremely well, they bonded over their shared political interests over a long lunch. Jordan has already promised publicly that he will change the law in order to allow Nigel to turn the boats back to France – this will be a new dawn for Europe.”
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Le Pen has been leading the opinion polls in France and is currently considered the favourite by many to win the French presidential election next spring.
This is despite her being found guilty of embezzlement of EU funds last year.
Initially, Le Pen had been banned from running in the election, but this ban was overturned by a appeal court earlier this month.
The court upheld her guilty verdict.
If Le Pen were to win the presidential election, Bardella would become prime minister of France.
Bardella’s appearance at the Reform conference is yet more evidence rubbishing outlandish claims from Farage that his party are not far-right but in fact “centre right.”