They like the way the economy is run in Britain, believe there are more professional opportunities here and that there is a better spirit of enterprise, but French citizens living in Britain believe that the French health system, the quality of life there and their schools are better than over here.

Those are the findings of a GfK NOP study of more than 1,000 French people living in Britain who voted in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday.

French voters in London came out 56 per cent for Nico-las Sarkozy and 44 per cent for Ségolène Royal. In Britain overall, it was 53 per cent for Mr Sarkozy and 47 per cent for Ms Royal.

A total of 79 per cent of all respondents had a preference for the British way of running the economy. But there was a thumbs-down for the NHS. Eighty-nine per cent thought the French system was preferable to Britain’s, and 67 per cent thought that the quality of life was better in France. French schools were favoured by 62 per cent, but the British university system came out on top, 43 per cent to 40 per cent.

GfK NOP studied 1,149 French voters in London.

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