Like every British ranking I’ve seen, the THE has an “international” component (bonus points for either the percentage of student body or faculty from different countries) which seems to boost up the British schools more than the American and continental ones. Possibly because Europe has a ton of countries and English is the second language for more Europeans than French/German/Italian/etc.
That component seems to be in the British rankings in large part to boost up the British schools.
If you want just a straight research ranking (which is really what the THE is with bonus points for international composition), I would just look at ARWU.
The French do not do well in research rankings because their elite instiutions tend to be small and specialized.