France: Objective was to keep us 'trapped' – Farage lashes out at EU

W/S European Parliament, Strasbourg
SOT, Manfred Weber, Leader of the European People's Party: "After the Brexit referendum three years ago, the Brexiteers claimed, I quote, the EU finished, the EU doesn't work. Over three years after, the EU is strong, is alive, is united and knows exactly what it wants. At the moment, it is not Britain that is leaving the EU, but jobs and business that is leaving UK. One third of the British businesses are planning or are already leaving Britain, and everybody regrets here - not everybody, but mainly we regret, here, in the plenary, the Brexit outcome, but I must tell you, during the election campaign it was a powerful argument to tell the Europeans it's stupid and it creates a lot of uncertainty if you take the European Union into question. That's why you helped us a lot to convince the Europeans that this is a stupid approach." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
M/S Belgium MEP Guy Verhofstadt
SOT, Guy Verhofstadt, MEP from Belgium: "I think it is important to recall that the British Parliament may be shut down but we are clearly showing today with this debate that the European Union is not what is the case in Britain. It is fantastic that the Brexit Party and Mr. Farage are making so much noise because they can't do it in Westminster anymore, so they have to do it here. By the way, they are not even elected in Westminster." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
W/S European Parliament
SOT, Nigel Farage, Leader of the Brexit Party: "We put ourselves entirely in your hands, we put ourselves indeed at your mercy, and I would suggest that the events that we have seen across Europe this week do not indicate that good faith exists. I am of course referring to the pipsqueak Prime Minister of Luxembourg who set out to ritually humiliate a British Prime Minister in the most astonishing way, only to be greeted like a hero by President Macron at the Elysee Palace yesterday. And it's very clear to me that keeping us trapped inside this was the objective of Barnier's from the start." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
W/S European Parliament
SCRIPT
Brexit Party leader and MEP Nigel Farage criticized the EU policy towards the UK during the Brexit period, speaking at a European Parliament session in the French city of Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Saying that the UK puts itself at the EU's "mercy" he added that the recent events don't show that "good faith exists."
"I am of course referring to the pipsqueak Prime Minister of Luxembourg who set out to ritually humiliate a British Prime Minister in the most astonishing way, only to be greeted like a hero by President Macron at the Elysee Palace yesterday," stressed Farage.
"And it's very clear to me that keeping us trapped inside this was the objective of Barnier's from the start," he added, referring to EU's Chief Negotiator for the UK Exiting the EU, Michel Barnier.
Manfred Weber, Leader of the European People's Party, in turn said: "We regret, here, in the plenary, the Brexit outcome, but I must tell you, during the election campaign it was a powerful argument to tell the Europeans it's stupid and it creates a lot of uncertainty if you take the European Union into question."
"That's why you helped us a lot to convince the Europeans that this was a stupid approach," he added.
As the October 31 Brexit deadline is looming, some EU politicians warn against the risk of a no-deal Brexit.
Earlier the UK Parliament passed a bill making a no-deal Brexit unlawful, days before its prorogation initiated by the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Mandatory credit: EBS