French PM Michel Barnier loses no-confidence vote as government collapses

He was meant to be the man to dig Emmanuel Macron out of a hole.

The skilled negotiator who ran rings around the British during the interminable Brexit negotiations.

Michel Barnier's short-lived spell in power began with some promise. The far-right French leader Marine Le Pen said he was someone she could do business with, but the honeymoon was short-lived.

Mr Barnier's rivals smelled blood and rounded on him. They rejected attempts to bring pragmatism to the task of resolving France's mounting fiscal crisis. In frustration, he tried to ram his plan through parliament, triggering a vote of no confidence.

He has now paid the price after a long illustrious career in French politics and has become the first prime minister to lose such a vote since 1962. The hole he was meant to extricate his master from has only deepened.

His former British antagonists in the Brexit negotiations may have a feeling of schadenfreude, others may be more sympathetic.

His master, President Macron, must now find someone else to take on the job, which could be seen as a poisoned chalice. They will find it equally challenging trying to resolve the impasse.

France spends far more than it brings in through revenues, and that deficit is unsustainable, says the European Union. But the longer this instability goes on, the cost of borrowing for the French state could only increase, potentially leading to a spiralling crisis.

And the fate of the country's president is central to all this. Emmanuel Macron says he will stay in the job until 2027 and his office is vested with great executive powers under the constitution of the Fifth Republic.

The more he wields them though, the more his enemies will make the charge he is acting undemocratically. That may ease the far right's accession to power should he end up being forced to resign. There is a huge amount at stake.