Nigel Farage has said that it would be a “disaster” if Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won power in France.

The Reform UK leader said the hard-Right party would be “even worse for the economy than the current lot” after a rally in Birmingham.

In contrast, he praised Giorgia Meloni, the hard-Right prime minister of Italy.

“She’s brought her party into the 21st century,” he said. “Some of the more radical Italians might not like it, but she’s been a very good thing and she’s made her party electable.”

Mr Farage spoke to the Unherd website before National Rally won the largest share of the vote in the first round of the snap parliamentary election on Sunday night.

French stocks rallied because it pointed to Ms Le Pen’s party failing to get an absolute majority in the second round, which soothed investor fears of a “Frexit” from the EU. They had plummeted after Emmanuel Macron called the snap vote, after losing European elections to National Rally.

Ms Le Pen and Mr Farage’s relationship dates back to when both were members of the European Parliament – and it has had its ups and downs.

The two politicians are eurosceptics and hold tough views on immigration. Both have denied accusations that they are soft on Vladimir Putin. However, Ms Le Pen favours a more Left-wing and protectionist economic policy than Mr Farage.

Her policies are grounded in cutting taxes, raising spending and borrowing heavily. In recent days the party has rowed back on some of its more expensive plans, in a bid to reassure markets.

Mr Farage, who has a longer history of backing free markets and low borrowing, has argued for significant spending cuts to try to shake up the Government’s finances.

In 2014, Mr Farage refused to form a European parliamentary alliance with Ms Le Pen when they were both MEPs because of the party’s “anti-Semitism and general prejudice”.

Ms Le Pen accused Mr Farage of “aggression” after European elections, when both had led their eurosceptic parties to victory.

In a reference to his alleged roving eye, she suggested the then UKIP chief had only formed an alliance with a rival party because their parliamentary assistants were prettier.

Writing in The Telegraph in 2017, Mr Farage praised Ms Le Pen for reshaping a party with roots “deep in Vichy” and with anti-Semitism “embedded in its DNA”.

“She is a sincere Eurosceptic,” he said and added that her party is now “about sovereignty, not race”.

He backed her in her failed run at the French presidency in 2017, which included a now ditched campaign promise to hold a Frexit referendum.