Opposition deputies have denounced what they say appears to have been close collaboration between Macron and Uber at a time when the company was trying to get around tight government regulation of their sector.

Contacted by Agence France-Presse, Uber France confirmed that the two sides had been in contact. The meetings with Macron had been in the normal course of his ministerial duties, which covered the private-hire sector.

The president’s office told Agence France-Presse that at that time Macron had, as economy minister, “naturally” been in contact with “many companies involved in the profound change in services that has occurred over the years mentioned, which should be facilitated by unravelling certain administrative or regulatory locks”.

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But Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the left-wing opposition France Unbowed party, denounced on Twitter what she described as the “pillage of the country” during Macron’s time as minister under president Francois Hollande.

She described Macron as a “lobbyist” for a “US multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labour law”.

Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel described Le Monde’s story as “damning revelations about the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, to facilitate the development of Uber in France.

“Against all our rules, all our social rights and against workers’ rights,” he posted on Twitter.

Communist deputy Pierre Dharreville called for a parliamentary inquiry into the affair.

The Uber Files investigation is based on a leak of thousands of documents to Britain’s Guardian newspaper from an anonymous source, and has been coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The ICIJ is working with 42 media partners around the world on the story.