Nigel Farage jeered by MEPs after comparing EU to the Mafia

Nigel Farage has been jeered in Strasbourg after comparing the EU Parliament to the Mafia over its Brexit demands. Asked to retract his “unacceptable” remark by the body’s president, Italian Antonio Tajani, the former UKIP leader agreed - saying “gangsters” was a more appropriate word.The row broke out as MEPs voted on the bloc’s negotiating strategy now Article 50 has been triggered. It became even more heated when Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, said he expected the UK to rejoin the EU when the next generation “see Brexit for what it really is: a catfight in the Conservative party that got out of hand, a loss of time, a waste of energy, stupidity”.

Already you have made a series of demands that are not just unreasonable but in some cases clearly impossible for Britain to comply with.

Nigel Farage

Mr Farage warned against forcing the UK to walk away from the talks with no deal: “You know we don’t have to buy German cars, we don’t have to drink French wine, we don’t have to eat Belgian chocolate. There are a lot of other people who will give that to us.” Mr Farage also took a swipe at European Council president Donald Tusk. Noting his absence, he said: “I suspect that he is still crying. He looked pretty tearful, didn’t he, after the British ambassador delivered the letter?” Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, a two-year period of talks with the 27 remaining EU member states lies ahead. While the Prime Minister wants to negotiate a new trade deal with Europe alongside the divorce settlement, the EU has said it is reluctant to do so until after the UK has officially left.

Politics