‘You’re now an MP, you’re the leader of a party, don’t you need to say what we can do?’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage failed to outline his vision for the UK’s relationship with the EU when challenged by Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4 this morning.
The Reform leader slammed Keir Starmer for sitting down with 27 EU leaders at a dinner in Brussels yesterday evening.
Farage specifically said that attending a dinner at Palais d’Egmont, where Edward Heath signed the treaty to bring the UK into the then European Economic Community in 1972, was “an act of humiliation”.
He also said he was “alarmed” by the agreement made at the dinner to “deepen industrial collaboration” between the UK and the EU, stating that “the very fact that he [Starmer] was there discussing such things shows you that our prime minister is a rejoiner at heart”.
Barnett challenged Farage, asking: “Doesn’t it show you he’s following his own manifesto at an election that he won?”, referring to Labour’s pledge to strengthen the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.
“That seemed to go down pretty well with voters,” she added.
Speaking about the example of a fisherman in North Shields, who recently said on GB News that red tape documentation has gone up 100 fold since Brexit, Farage acknowledged that regulations have got worse since Brexit.
He also said that the deal the Tories negotiated was “not a good one”, but failed to say how it could be improved.
“We can improve the deal by saying to them look, we can make this easier for both of us,” he said, before stating “my fear is we tie ourselves to EU law, that we start to accept single market regulations”.
The presenter replied: “You’re still not saying what – you keep outlining your fears, what you don’t like, but you’re now an MP, you’re the leader of a party, don’t you need to say what we can do?”
He said the UK could sign a free trade deal with the US and look across the rest of the world, as well as boosting productivity in the UK.
Barnett pointed to a huge YouGov poll for Best for Britain which found every constituency in the UK preferred a closer relationship with the EU rather than with the US, including Farage’s own constituency of Clacton.
Barnett said: “I’m trying to understand from you how you accept that there are a lot of people in this country who want closer ties with the European Union and it doesn’t seem you can outline how you can accept that ideologically.”
Farage said: “We voted Brexit, we voted to Leave, that was very very clear – we can be friendly, we can be co-operative –”
The presenter asked multiple times: “What does that mean?”
She added: “What does being friendly mean? We’re not mates in a pub, can you commit to something?”
The Brexiteer did not provide a clear response but emphasised that the UK is a “global trading nation” and that “the most important part is we don’t tie ourselves [to the EU]”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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