Until now, rather discreet on the question of France’s commitment to Ukraine, so as not to fuel the controversy over her supposed ‘Putinophilia’, Marine Le Pen has this time raised her voice and declared herself openly hostile to increasing French military support to Ukraine.

Wallace’s announcement comes only days before a long-awaited defense command paper to cut the number of regular troops is presented at Parliament, reducing the UK army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars.

“We need to be patient, we need to be consistent, we need to be ideologically well-founded in what we do and what we say, and then we need to be patient. We would like to build up a more steady base that is ideologically convinced that we represent them, rather than just try to get the disenfranchised voters who are now unhappy with the current government.”