In other quarters Bayou’s suggestion was denounced as an invasion of privacy.

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Julien Odoul, a National Rally MP, complained on Twitter that “the fanatic Julien Bayou wants to deny the French the right to do as they see fit on their property”.

Thomas Ménagé, his fellow RN MP, said it was wrong to see all swimming pools as “elitist”.

“These are French people who don’t go on holiday... because they don’t have the means,” he told France Inter.

Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party was only halfway in on the idea of a ban. MP Guillaume Kasbarian tweeted: “Yesterday planes, today swimming pools, tomorrow barbecues... at this rate the Greens will have to tell us what they will still allow.”

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Marlène Schiappa, social economy and solidarity minister, mocked the Greens by tweeting: “A solution to all things? Ban/tax, ban/tax...”

But Pascal Canfin, head of Renaissance’s environmental commission at the European Parliament, said discussing a pool ban was “legitimate” and that it was “utopian” to think things could stay as they are.

It could become necessary to “ration, to limit this consumption for the very rich or this superficial consumption that doesn’t correspond to essential needs”, he said.

Bayou later back-pedalled to say a ban would only be a “last resort”.

“What’s at stake isn’t a swimming pool ban, it’s guaranteeing your vital water needs,” he said.

The Telegraph, London

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