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The sheer nerve of the man.

After a couple of missteps on the campaign trail, Emmanuel Macron has seen opinion polls slide against him.

The invitation to visit Downing Street was a helping hand from Theresa May.

He could pose on its steps and voters back home could imagine him in the role of statesman already.

Was Monsieur Macron grateful? Well, he didn't show it.

After the meeting with the Prime Minister and cross the channel to France.

Banks, talent, researchers, academics are all welcome, he said.

Downing Street hasn't been drawn to comment.

But as Mr Macron walked through Whitehall later, pursued by cameras and curious tourists, I spotted someone moving the other way who would have an opinion.

Leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith looked bemused when I told him who was at the midst of the throng.

I asked his reaction to Mr Macron's comments about luring banks and talent to France.

"Fat chance," he retorted. "Dream on."

The choice of venue was perhaps indecorous.

Mr Macron could have waited, perhaps, to make his appeal at the rally his campaign laid on later at Westminster.

But his sentiments were hardly controversial.

France is keen to make the most of opportunities after Brexit.

Paris has always coveted the City of London's financial pre-eminence.

But there was another good reason for Mr Macron's grandstanding.

He needs the attention. His campaign is beginning to flag, after a promising start.

Missteps on the issues of gay marriage and France's history in Algeria have taken their toll.

He'll be hoping his appeal for British talent to move post-Brexit to France will help restore his campaign, and bring more coverage to his rally in Westminster, where he appealed for the support of tens of thousands of French expats living in London.

His conservative rival Francois Fillon had been written off after a scandal about his wife being paid for a job she allegedly didn't do.

But he's risen again in the latest opinion polls.

If Mr Fillon carries on at this rate, he's likely to survive the first round of voting and end up facing Marine Le Pen in the second.

Were she to win the presidency, Marine Le Pen threatens a French withdrawal from the eurozone.

Economists say that could be disastrous.

And she would also offer a referendum on France leaving the European Union, which may well spell its doom.

Opinion polls suggest she does not have the support to win a second round, as things stand.

But it's not been a good year for opinion polls, and there are weeks to go.

After Brexit and Donald Trump's victory in America, a Le Pen victory is far from out of the question.