EMMANUEL Macron is set to sue Britain over the Brexit fishing row.
The French president will ask the EU to launch legal action over 73 rejected licences.
No10 is confident he will lose the case but an independent panel will not rule until mid-May.
He can go into April’s election claiming he has defended angry skippers.
Should he win the case, it could spark a trade war.
An EU spokesman said: “We’ll examine with the French the legal circumstances around every requested license which hasn’t been granted.”
The UK has approved 93 per cent of 1,000 requests.
The Government said they have only been rejected when evidence was not provided.
Paris also plans to ramp up police boardings of British fishing vessels in French waters from New Year’s Day.
