'We are waking from a sleep' France's ex-PM on revitalising ties with Britain

In the conference room of a hotel in west London, the man who would be France's next head of state is sharing his views about Brexit.

- Juliette Garside

Microphone in hand, Gabriel Attal is here to meet activists and expatriates. Once 270,000 strong, London's French community has dwindled in recent years. The 36-year-old leader of Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party is doing his best to gee them up.

"We are waking at the moment from a long sleep when we talk about relations between France and the UK," he says. In the face of war in Ukraine and turmoil in the US, old alliances are re-forming. "Many thought the channel would become an ocean. And that all the ties that bound us had to be cut. But we are emerging from this sleep because in some measure we are forced to."

In two years, when Macron's term comes to an end, Attal is positioning himself to lead their centrist party into battle against Marine Le Pen's populists. If successful, he would beat Macron's record as France's youngest president. For now, he is launching himself on the world stage, with visits to Ukraine, Israel and later this year to several African nations.

During his UK visit he called on the former prime minister Tony Blair and laid a wreath at the statue of the French wartime leader Charles de Gaulle. Last Wednesday in Kensington, in the heart of London's French quarter, he addressed his audience with the confidence and lyrical flow that earned him the title "le snipeur des mots" - the word sniper.

"Liberty was given by the proponents of Brexit as a reason why they had to leave the EU. But being free is not being able to choose the colour of your passport. It is about being able to choose the face of your destiny."