The leader of Macron’s party wants to tackle teenage screen addiction, ban headscarves for girls under 15 and bring France closer to Britain. On a visit to London, he discusses Ukraine, immigration – and his presidential intentions

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In the conference room of a hotel in Kensington, the man who would be France’s next head of state is sharing his views about Brexit. 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 reforming. “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.”