Chancellor George Osborne: Links with the European Union should be based on

“As things stand in [European public opinion], the answer to any proposal to change the treaties in the near future is likely to be “no” in all countries“, he said.

“Britain has other interests at a European level”.

The review is expected to conclude in October, giving Mr Osborne the opportunity to consider another round of pension reforms in his Autumn Statement.

Asked if he wanted to return Britain to a trading relationship with the EU, he said: “I prefer to talk about it as a single market of free trade”.

Given Britain’s sizeable exports to the eurozone, it is in London’s interest to make sure the euro is a “successful and stable” currency, the minister said.

The Chancellor said the central attraction of membership was the economic benefits and he preferred to talk about the EU as a “single market of free trade”.

The deal, which is planned to unlock up to £42 billion of economic growth across Europe, will enhance co-operation on making government data accessible, establishing a set of principles on how small and medium sized businesses use data, and make it easier for data to be moved around. He said everything would depend “on the pace and success of negotiations” in Brussels.

But, aside from a pledge to launch a task force to coordinate French and British best practices on digital regulation, the points of agreement between France and Britain remained gauzy and abstract. That of course includes Britain.

“I am a great believer in Britain defending itself, defending its values, projecting itself and its values overseas”, he said. That can create a win-win situation. That’s the way I think we should think about it.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “I’ve always thought the mainstream bulk of the British public wants to be in Europe, not run by Europe“.

He and Mr Macron spoke after visiting “The Family”, a French organisation which provides seed funding and administrative support to high-technology start-up companies.

Osborne spared no effort, dining for three hours with Macron on Sunday evening, then spending the morning with him at a Parisian “startup farm” before heading to meetings with Finance Minister Michel Sapin and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Indeed, focusing talks on anything more granular than such “big picture” considerations would have forced France to restate its official line, which is to oppose any reform of EU treaties that undermines the four “fundamental freedoms”: of goods, of services, of capital and people.

Les Cameron, head of the technical team at Prudential UK, said it would be “surprising” if any tax relief reforms were more generous to higher and additional rate taxpayers.