A bitter family feud has erupted between . National Front leader Marine Le Pen and her father Jean-Marie after she accused him of committing 'political suicide.' Ms Le Pen has blocked her father's return to the party following accusations that he was trying to sabotage her party's efforts to move into the . political mainstream with a recent raft of controversial comments. Tensions had escalated last week after the 86-year-old founder of the far-right party defended his previous comments describing Nazi gas chambers as a 'detail of history'. Scroll down for video . Marine Le Pen (left) has accused her father (right) of trying to sabotage her party's efforts to move into the political mainstream with a raft of controversial comments . And yesterday, Mr Le Pen was quoted as calling France's Spanish-born Prime Minister Manuel . Valls 'the immigrant' and defending Philippe Petain, leader of . the war-time government that cooperated with Nazi Germany. 'Jean-Marie Le Pen seems to have descended into a strategy . somewhere between scorched earth and political suicide,' said Marine . Le Pen, who took over the party from her father in 2011. 'His status as honorary president does not give him the . right to hijack the National Front with vulgar provocations . seemingly designed to damage me but which unfortunately hit the . whole movement,' she said. Ms Le Pen has tried to rid the anti-immigrant party of . its anti-Semitic image and widen its voter appeal as she readies . a bid for the French presidency in 2017. Polls suggest she could . make it into the second-round run-off of a presidential election . but is unlikely to win. Family at war: A bitter family feud has deepened between National Front leader Marine Le Pen (right) and her father Jean-Marie (centre) She added she would oppose her father's bid to lead the . party in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in . December local elections where the party is hoping to make gains . after strong performances in town hall and departmental votes. Ms Le Pen already distanced herself from her father last . June after a quip about a French Jewish singer that included an . implied reference to concentration camp ovens. But last week Mr Le Pen said he had 'never regretted' his comments about the Second World War gas chambers, which is likely to revive accusations that the far-Right party remains anti-Semitic. Mr Le Pen, who is still an MEP, said: 'The gas chambers were a detail of the war, unless we admit that the war was a detail of the gas chambers!' During an interview on BFM TV in Paris, Mr Le Pen said 'the truth' should 'not shock anyone', and that historical reality should not be used to portray him as anti-Jewish. 'This case was manipulated against me by introducing a hint of anti-Semitism,' said Mr Le Pen. 'I challenge anyone to name an anti-Semitic phrase in my political life. Yesterday, Jean-Marie Le Pen was quoted as calling France's Spanish-born Prime Minister Manuel Valls (right)  'the immigrant' and defending Philippe Petain, leader of the war-time government that cooperated with Nazi Germany (left) 'Repeatedly questioned about the Holocaust, Mr Le Pen said: 'War is horrible, you know, a piece of shrapnel that tears your stomach, a bomb that decapitates you, a room in which you are asphyxiated, it's all pretty disgusting, it's true.' Following the comments, Ms Le Pens said she 'deeply disagreed' with her 'deliberately provocative' father. Speaking to the website of Le Figaro daily, she said: 'I deeply disagree with him. 'I take note of what he said but I believe that those coming over to vote for us understand what is going on. He is being deliberately provocative.' Ms Le Pen's party regularly wins up to 25 per cent of the popular vote at local and regional elections, and Ms Le Pen intends to stand for the job of president in 2017. Under her leadership, the party has deepened its roots across France, winning outright control of some town halls and getting its officials elected onto the councils of 'departements', broadly the equivalent of counties. Polls suggest she could make it into the second-round run-off of a presidential election but is unlikely to win. Marine accused her father of committing 'political suicide' after he defended his past comment that Nazi gas chambers were a 'detail of history' last week . While other FN officials have been stripped of their party membership for racism, there has been no move to bar Jean-Marie Le Pen from a party of which he still holds the title of honorary president. He is popular with many FN members and will stand as a candidate in December's regional elections, despite having been convicted on numerous occasions of being anti-Jewish and for 'inciting racial hatred'. He has regularly made the comment about the Holocaust, telling the European Parliament in 2009: 'I just said that the gas chambers were a detail of Second World War history, which is clear.' Mr Le Pen was first convicted by a Munich court in 1999 for 'minimising the Holocaust' after telling a German far-right meeting that Nazi concentration camps and the gas chambers are 'what one calls a detail'. He has had a string of other convictions, including ones for violence and was briefly banned from being an MEP in 2003 following a physical attack on a French Socialist MEP. Jews have complained of increasing anti-Semitism in France, much of it stirred up by far-right activists. The Nazi Holocaust extended to France between 1940 and 1944, when thousands of Jews were entrained from cities like Paris to the German gas chambers.
Marine Le Pen accused  father Jean-Marie of committing 'political suicide'
Comes after he called France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls 'the immigrant'
He also defended comment that Nazi gas chambers were 'detail of history'
Le Pen said she would oppose her father's bid to lead the National Front .