EU referendum: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to campaign for Brexit during UK visit

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is to travel to the UK to campaign for the country's exit from the European Union. Eurosceptic Le Pen has previously claimed that a potential Brexit would hasten a French exit as a result, reports France 24.

In recent years, Le Pen's Front National party has made significant gains in regional and European French elections, driving its current campaigning on an anti-EU, anti-Islam platform.

In the coming weeks, Le Pen will travel across the channel to appear alongside pro-Brexit candidate, MEP Janice Atkinson, who was expelled from Ukip last year.

Le Pen has said she supports Brexit as she believes it would hasten the collapse of the EU, and result in France's ultimate exit. "(British departure) will prove that it is possible to live outside the European Union. Either we are free or we are not," Ms Le Pen said recently, according to The Independent.

Atkinson, who represents south-east England in the European parliament, is a member of Le Pen's European parliamentary group. She was expelled from Ukip in March 2015, after her chief of staff was alleged to have attempted to inflate her parliamentary expenses. Police took no action against Atkinson.

Le Pen's participation in the Brexit campaign is unlikely to be welcomed by Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who has refused to join forces with Le Pen's Eurosceptic coalition in Brussels, and has described FN as a racist party.

It comes as a new poll in French newspaper, Le Figaro, today (20 April) showed increasing opposition to Brexit amongst the French public. Previously polls were equally divided, but the most recent survey shows 54 per cent of the French public opposes Britain leaving the union.