The row over Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time echoes the controversy that greeted the first invitation for Jean-Marie Le Pen to debate on prime-time television in France 25 years ago. Until then the leader of the ultra-right National Front had been kept off the French airwaves by journalists unwilling to give publicity to his racist rants.

With the National Front gaining ground in local and national elections, that stance became increasingly difficult to justify.

In February 1984, L’Heure de Vérité, an influential programme of political debate on the state-run Antenne 2 channel, broke ranks and asked Mr Le Pen to participate.

Left-wing critics reacted with fury — and their anger grew during his provocative performance on air.

First, he demanded a minute’s silence for victims of the Soviet Gulag — remaining mute as Albert le Roy, the presenter, continued to ask questions.

Then he accused the "Arabo-Muslim world of progressively colonising France" — a comment that earned him a conviction in a French court for inciting racial hatred.

But his reputation and showmanship produced a record audience for the programme and ensured him regular appearances on television over the next two decades.

The temptation to exploit Mr Le Pen’s pull was illustrated in 1994, when Paul Amar, a newsreader, introduced a debate between the right-wing leader and Bernard Tapie, a businessman and politician, by handing boxing gloves to both men.

But the French Establishment continues to have an ambivalent attitude towards the man who claims that the Nazi gas chambers were a ”detail of history”, who always backed Saddam Hussein and who continues to justify collaboration with Hitler during the Second World War.

When he won a place in the final round of the 2002 presidential election, for instance, Jacques Chirac, the sitting President, refused the traditional televised debate with him.

Mr Chirac said that he did not want to give credibility to a figure whose values were at odds with French democracy.

That enabled Mr Le Pen to portray himself as the victim of a self-serving Establishment.

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