The euro dropped after the shock French election result gave the hard-Left the most seats in parliament.

Marine Le Pen endured a shock defeat at the hands of the hard-Left and Emmanuel Macron on Sunday night after French voters turned out in force to keep her party from power.

In disappointing results for the National Rally (RN) leader, the New Popular Front, an uneasy alliance of centre-Left, green and far-Left parties, claimed the most seats in the snap parliamentary election, winning 182 in the 577-seat Assembly.

The result meant the euro fell 0.1pc against the pound to be worth 84.5p and slumped as much as 0.4pc against the dollar as Europe’s largest economy faces the prospect of a hung parliament.

Marine Le Pen’s hard-Right National Rally was beaten into second place by Emmanuel Macron’s centrists despite leading in the first round. 

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-Left leader of the New Popular Front said he wanted his party to govern.

He said: “The will of the people must be strictly respected ... the president must invite the New Popular Front to govern.”

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