Nigel Farage admits Brexit has ‘failed’
Former Ukip leader says ministers have failed to take
advantage of leaving the EU
Matt
Mathers
20 hours
ago
Arch-Brexiteer
Nigel Farage has admitted that leaving the EU has “failed” as he sought to
blame the government for what he described as its inability to take advantage
of being outside the trading bloc.
The former
Brexit and UKIP Party leader, who refused to rule out a political comeback, said
the UK had not “benefitted from Brexit economically”, claiming that government
policy had deterred businesses from investing in the UK.
His
comments came as a row brewed in the Conservative Party over immigration with
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, calling for overall numbers to come down
in a speech at the National Conservative Conference that was viewed by some as
a pitch for the future leadership.
In an
interview with BBC Newsnight on Monday, Mr Farage said the UK had not
benefitted from Brexit economically, lambasted UK politicians for being “as
useless as the commissioners” in Brussels and accused the government of failing
to control Britain’s borders.
It was put
to Mr Farage that recent polling appeared to show an increasing number of
people who voted for Brexit now regret the decision and that the UK was the
only G7 economy not to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“I don’t
think that for a moment,” Mr Farage replied when he was asked if the UK would
have been better off staying in the EU, the world’s largest single market area.
“But what I do think is we haven’t actually benefitted from Brexit
economically, what we could have done.”
“I mean,
what Brexit’s proved, I’m afraid, is that our politicians are about as useless
as the commissioners in Brussels were,” he added. “We’ve mismanaged this
totally, and if you look at simple things…such as takeovers, such as
corporation tax, we are driving business away from our country.
“Arguably,
now we’re back in control, we’re regulating our own businesses even more than
they were as EU members. Brexit has failed.”
When asked
if he was considering a political comeback to tackle what he said was the
government’s failure on Brexit, Mr Farage replied: “Well, I wouldn’t rule it
out. It’s not at the top of my bucket list but frankly we’ve not delivered on
borders, we’ve not delivered on Brexit. The Tories have let us down very, very
badly.”
In March
the UK’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility said that the impact of
Brexit on the UK economy was on the same “magnitude” as the Covid pandemic and
energy price crisis.
In a grim
assessment, OBR chair Richard Hughes also warned that it would take five years
before people’s spending power recovers to pre-coronavirus levels.
Britain’s
gross domestic product (GDP) would be 4 per cent smaller than if the country
had stayed in the EU, he said.
The OBR
chief said the country is undergoing the “biggest squeeze on living standards”
on record. “But we do expect, as we get past this year and we go into the next
three or four years, that real income starts to recover.”
He added:
“But it’s still the case that people’s real spending power doesn’t get back to
the level it was before the pandemic even after five years, even by the time we
get to the late 2020s.”
Mr Hughes
said economic growth had been held back because of “supply constraints” –
pointing to labour shortages and an investment slump.
“We’ve lost
around 500,000 people from the labour force, we’ve seen stagnant investment
since 2016 and also our productivity has slowed dramatically since the
financial crisis and not really recovered,” he said.
Speaking at
the conference Ms Braverman said more Britons should be trained as HGV drivers,
fruit pickers and butchers so the UK does not have to rely on foreign workers
to fill jobs.
Speaking to
Times Radio later in the morning Nigel Huddleston, the trade minister, said
Britain needs immigration to rise “now and again”, in remarks that appeared to
contradict the home secretary.
Me
Huddleston stressed that there would “always be peaks and troughs” in levels of
immigration, with figures next week expected to show a surge in arrivals to the
UK.
Downing
Street later said Ms Braverman speaks on behalf of the government.
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