France's far-right National Front dumps founder Jean-Marine Le Pen

France's National Front has voted to strip founder Jean-Marie Le Pen of his position as honorary president.

Ties between the National Front and Jean-Marie Le Pen have now been severed. Source: AAP

France's National Front has voted to strip founder Jean-Marie Le Pen of his position as honorary president, ending his last formal connection with the far-right party.

Sunday's vote, which was part of a wider rule change approved by delegates to the party's congress, is the culmination of a campaign by his daughter Marine, the current leader, to clean up the party's image.

The elder Le Pen had been expelled from the party in 2015 over his repeated comments downplaying the Holocaust but courts ruled that he retained the position of honorary president, in theory entitling him to attend meetings of the party's leadership bodies.

Marine Le Pen is trying to clean up the party's image. Source: AAP

The vote was announced by party vice president Jean-Francois Jalkh at the start of the second day of a congress that Marine Le Pen says is intended to relaunch the party.

At her keynote speech on Sunday afternoon, she will also propose a name change.