Jean-Marie Le Pen is 'ashamed' of his daughter and urges her to marry and change second name

The founder of France’s Front National party was suspended on Monday

NF founder Jean-Marie Le Pen leads a Paris May Day rally (Getty Images)

The founder of France’s far-right Front National party Jean-Marie Le Pen has launched a scathing attack on his daughter, saying he hoped she would marry soon and change her last name.

Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the anti-immigration party, and her father had a very public falling out when Mr Le Pen was suspended from the party for repeating his view of the Holocaust as a “detail of history”, at a time when Ms Le Pen is keen to move the party away from widely-held perceptions that it is racist and anti-Semitic.

Her father reacted furiously to the suspension on Tuesday, telling Europe 1 radio: "I was hoping that the president of the National Front would get married as quickly as possible so as to change her name.

"Because I'm ashamed that she has the same surname as me."

The 86-year-old, who helped found the party in 1972, accused Ms Le Pen of treating him in “an absolutely scandalous way” during the interview.

He said he would not be supporting her election campaign for the moment "because if such moral principles should preside over the French state, it would be scandalous”.

Front National party members said Mr Le Pen's reaction justified his suspension.

"Internal democracy functioned perfectly within the National Front and the decision is perfectly clear," party treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just was quoted by Reuters as saying.