Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, on Wednesday broke with his low-profile strategy to claim his opponents’ efforts to steal his policies on immigration, jobs and security were merely boosting his bid for the French presidency.

Mr Le Pen, who finished second in the 2002 presidential election, told Le Monde that his main rivals – Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal – would not gain votes by copying ideas he had preached for years because voters were fed up with the two main parties, the UMP and the Socialists.