Nigel Farage – also known as “Mr. Brexit” – had some harsh words for the U.S. and President Biden as he discussed problems on both sides of the pond in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“[The U.K.] caught the disease of woke from the USA, and it now has a stranglehold on our institutions, to the dismay of the silent majority,” Farage said.
Farage lamented the change in the relationship between the U.S. and U.K. since Biden took office, arguing that the two countries had a better dynamic when former President Trump was in power, and that Trump might have signed a free trade deal with Britain, helping the country as it continues to find its footing with Brexit.
Despite saying that he did not think Biden “likes the U.K. very much,” he stressed the potential benefits for each country that would come with helping to grow the famous “special relationship.”
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“Longer term, clearly, America, for goodness’ sake, we speak the same language,” Farage said. “We have common law. We’re the biggest foreign investor in the U.S., the biggest foreign investor here, and enormous cultural links.”
“So I think trade with America between us and America should grow. Trade between [the U.K.] and India, I think, should grow. And they’re the two really big areas that I see opportunities for us going ahead.”
Farage also criticized Biden for “doing all that he can to slowly but surely” turn America away from leading as an energy exporter.
As harsh as Farage was on Biden, he spared little love for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, saying that current British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – whom Farage called “Britain’s first Goldman Sachs prime minister – had “virtually disappeared” and is “not a leader.”
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“In terms of leadership, he doesn’t have the ability, which is why he actually lost the contest to become the Conservative Party leader, lost it by some margin to Liz Truss, and yet, by default, in the end, got the top job,” Farage said. “Yeah, he may be a very clever man, but he’s not a leader.”
Farage laid the blame for many of the country’s current problems at the feet of the governing Conservative Party, such as the lack of a “reasonable” response to the nationwide strikes across a number of industries in Britain and a failure to deliver the kind of Brexit voters expected.
“I have to say that when it comes to life-saving jobs like ambulance driving, I don’t personally believe that strikes are morally acceptable, but I think the government’s standoffish position on this isn’t right,” Farage explained. “I think they really should be advising these trade unions in 10 Downing Street and say, look, you know, what is it you want? Is it class warfare? Is it bringing down a conservative government that in the case of the railway unions, there does appear to be a hard leftist agenda?”
“I think with the others there are reasonable compromises that can be made, and yet they won’t quite get pay rises in line with inflation,” he added.
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The Conservative Party has also failed to clamp down on rising illegal immigration – something that Brexit would have supposedly stymied. Farage pointed to an incident with the Australians, who faced widespread international criticism after turning back a boat of Indonesian refugees trying to enter the country.
Britain worked out a deal to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, but the first planned deportation flight to Rwanda was blocked in June by a last-minute injunction granted by the European Court of Human Rights, and the strategy’s lawfulness was subsequently challenged at London’s High Court, Reuters reported.
Britain should have had the “guts” to take on the European Court, but Sunak and his government worried more about international condemnation and foreign allies’ reactions than sticking to its policies, according to Farage.
“They’re stuck,” he said. “They keep promising they will deliver. I promise you they won’t.”
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Farage accused the mainstream parties and media in Britain of never accepting the Brexit referendum, which has prevented the country from acting on the real opportunity that independence presented.
“Brexit doesn’t make sense unless you put in place supply-side reforms unless you use the opportunity of not being in the European single market to make regulation, to make rules simpler, cheaper and easier,” Farage said. “The big sadness is that the Conservative government literally have done nothing – done absolutely nothing – nothing for your small business in the high street, nothing for your big brokerage house in the City of London.”
“I can tell you, as you know, the man [who] has been christened Mr. Brexit as somebody who dedicated his life to it. This is not the Brexit that I wanted, and I’m very, very disappointed,” he added, acknowledging that the current form of Brexit is not delivering on the promises made but stressing that independence remains popular.
Such independence, he insisted, allowed the U.K. to take a leading role in supporting Ukraine when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion and to roll out vaccinations when and how they wanted thanks to the ability to regulate and approve vaccines at the country’s own pace.
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“A lot of people are beginning to ask, what was it all for? And I repeat, the point is crucial: This is not a failure of Brexit, it’s a failure of the conservative government who frankly never actually believed in it, only adopted that position to stop me,” he said.
“Fine: I was happy with that at the time,” Farage continued. “They never believed it. And it is leading to a growing level of disenchantment.”
All of this turmoil and lack of leadership has created a prime opportunity for a “political insurgency” for a new center-right party, according to Farage. He believes that the Conservative Party has slid to the left, ending up at center-left, with other parties even further left.
The two leading parties – the Conservative Party and the Labour Party – now “virtually mirror each other on every major policy” and leaving “no choice” on ideology or significant policy, which Farage believes has led to the leaving the country virtually unworkable.
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However, any new party may have to arise without his help, as Farage reiterated that returning to the political front lines is “not top of my bucket list,” but he has left the possibility open.
“I’m considering my options,” Farage said. “I haven’t made my mind up. I won’t rule it out.”
