It had been a bracing, if dull, February day, but as the late afternoon turned to evening, the queue snaking around Central Hall Westminster only grew. And despite this being the heart of political London, for a few hours the prevailing manners, dress and language were all French. Emmanuel Macron, the dashing new hope for the French presidency, was in town to court his country’s excited ex-pats before the first round of the election in barely two months’ time.

Macron is standing as an Independent, which has allowed him to avoid the primary contests introduced by both the Socialists and the centre-right Republican Party.