Police raid Paris offices of Nicolas Sarkozy #BringBackOurGirls #Entertain9jar via @myentertain9jar

POLICE have raided the Paris offices of Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP Party after it emerged £9m worth of fake invoices were ordered for his last presidential election campaign

Police have raided the Paris offices of Nicolas Sarkozy[EPA]

The chairman of the party, Jean-Francois Cope, stepped down today amid an investigation into party funding, opening the race for the UMP nomination for president in 2017. 

UMP finances have been the subject of a legal inquiry after allegations earlier this year that an events company hired for Sarkozy's 2012 re-election bid was ordered by party officials to produce millions of euros' worth of fake invoices to cover campaign cost over-runs. 

But events accelerated on Monday as Jerome Lavrilleux, deputy director of Sarkozy's presidential campaign, acknowledged in a TV interview accounting "slip-ups" in Sarkozy's failed 2012 election bid.

However, he added that neither Cope or Sarkozy had been made aware of any anomalies. 

Hours earlier, police had searched UMP premises after accusations by a lawyer for Paris-based event organiser Bygmalion that the UMP ordered fake invoices totalling some €11m (£8.9m) to cover up campaign cost over-runs. 

Sarkozy, who was beaten by Socialist Francois Hollande in 2012 after one term in office, has made little secret of his desire to re-enter politics.

He is still a hero for much of the French right but his brash style and trenchant positions on immigration and other issues make him a divisive figure. 

He could also face difficulties in a separate fraud investigation targeting French businessman Bernard Tapie, who is alleged to have benefited from an improper arbitration payment of over €400m awarded in 2008 under Sarkozy's presidency. Both Tapie and Sarkozy have denied wrongdoing. 

The UMP was formed in 2002 from the ashes of the old RPR Gaullist party in an attempt to unite a disparate French right that extends from centrist moderates to hard-line right-wingers - some of whom have since split off and joined the Marine Le Pen's National Front. 

"We need to recreate that unity," said deputy Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the party's unsuccessful candidate for the Paris city hall in March.

"The French are counting on us for a change in government."