Le Pen: I want to renegotiate Europe, like Britain

Marine Le Pen took over France's far-right party, Front National, two years ago from her father Jean-Marie.

In last year's presidential election she won 6.4m votes - nearly one in five of the population.

Speaking exclusively to Newsnight she told Kirsty Wark she supported David Cameron's desire to renegotiation the balance of power in Europe, but added it was Eurosceptics such as UKIP that were responsible for putting pressure on the government to look at a referendum over the UK's future in Europe.

Referring to both Front National and UKIP, she adds: "We've managed to move the goal posts."

Later in the interview, turning to foreign policy matters, Ms Le Pen said while it was right to "respond to Malian government's call" and deploy troops, it would be "catastrophic" to be involved in the overthrow of Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad.

"We can't just do whatever we want in these countries and breaking off relations with Bashar al-Assad is senseless," she said, adding that "guiding democratic change in the country would be much more effective, much more successful and much less dangerous than we are currently doing."