It comes as police investigating the "Penelope Gate" fake jobs allegations raided offices at the French parliament. The investigators searched Fillon's office for information on payments totalling received by his Welsh-born wife Penelope from public funds available to MPs, several parliamentary sources said. Fillon’s lawyer Antonin Levy confirmed to Le Parisien newspaper that Penelope Fillon did not have a badge to enter parliament, but dismissed it as insignificant. “Many parliamentary assistants who come from the provinces do not have a badge. Penelope Fillon is far from being the only one,” Levy said.

Source: The Local January 31, 2017 14:24 UTC