Speaker 1:
Mr. Farage, five minutes.
Nigel Farage:
Thank you. Good morning.
Nigel Farage:
Well, I have tried for 20 years to do myself out of this job, and I thought I had succeeded. Little did I realize what the UK political class would do. So, the morning message is I’m coming back. In fact, lots and lots of us are coming back because Mr. Verhofstadt is right. Yes, I said that. First time ever. You’re quite right. The Brexit Party will sweep the board in these elections, and there is only one way it can be stopped. And that is if the governing party of Mrs. May and the opposition of Mr. Corbyn come together, and agree to a permanent customs union, and indeed, effectively, membership of the single market. If that happens, the Brexit Party won’t win the European elections, but it will win the general election because the betrayal will be so complete and utter. So, I don’t believe it’s going to happen.
Nigel Farage:
And as 15 years as the joint or sole president of a group, I have been to dozens of European summits and, again and again, I’ve seen conflict between nation states and the European institutions, whether it was the Austrians or the Irish or the Hungarians or, indeed, the Greeks. And there is one golden rule, always, and that is that Brussels wins. The power and might of Brussels always wins. But I’ve never been to a European summit quite like last week, where for the second time in two weeks, a British prime minister comes along and begs … begs for an extension to Article 50.
Nigel Farage:
It was humiliating, not just to be in Brussels, but humiliating for the standing of our country around the world. You know, the Commonwealth, America, many of these countries that actually like us, still believe that we’re a great nation, and yet we have sunk to this. A prime minister that promised us we’d leave on the 29th of March, that then said we might leave on the 12th of April, that we definitely leave on the 30th of June, and now we’re being told we’ll leave on the 31st of October. Halloween trick or treaty, make your minds up. And if it’s your last day, Mr. Juncker, well I hope that we leave together on that day. But, actually, if it’s left to this appalling prime minister, if it’s left to our politicians in Parliament, I know that it’s not going to happen.
Nigel Farage:
In the past, I know I’ve always criticized the power without accountability of senior bureaucrats in Brussels but, for once, I have to say that this mess is not your fault. Your position has been clear from the start. The mess is the fault of British politics, of two parties who both promised us in their manifestos, they would deliver Brexit, who signed up to Article 50, which expressly said we would leave, with or without a deal. That is where the betrayal is.
Nigel Farage:
And I do share with members great sadness of that appalling tragedy of the Notre Dame being burnt down yesterday. Something very beautiful has been lost. But something very vital is being lost in the United Kingdom, and I thought the deaths column of the Times newspaper yesterday summed it up rather well. UK Democracy, on the 29th of March, 2019, page 312. “It was with sad regret that democracy died quietly in her sleep at 11:00 PM on March the 29th, 2019. The cause of death was foul play, and the culprits have yet to be brought to justice. Democracy campaigned for the rule of law, human rights, and always, always favored the majority in her decisions. She will be sorely missed. God have mercy on our soul.”
Nigel Farage:
What is happening in British politics beginning on May the 23rd isn’t now just about Brexit, isn’t now just about us leaving the European Union. It’s about what kind of country we are. We have the oldest, longest-serving, continuous parliament in the world, the mother of parliaments. We have fought and given much for that principle of nation-state democracy, not just for us, but for our friends in Europe too.
Nigel Farage:
I sense among some in my country, disillusionment. But in others, I sense a burning anger. Not one to put on a yellow vest and protest, but one that says we need a peaceful political revolution in our country. We need to sweep away the two-party system that has let us down so badly. And I think you’re all going to be very, very surprised by what happens on May the 23rd. It will be a new future for British democracy and, goodness me, it’s needed.
Members:
Hurray!