from UKIP MEPs
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• European Parliament, Strasbourg, 26 October 2016
• Nigel Farage MEP, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Co-President of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) Group in the European Parliament – http://www.nigelfaragemep.co.uk @Nigel_Farage
• Debate: Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 20 and 21 October 2016
European Council and Commission statements
[2016/2772(RSP)]
Transcript:
So Mrs Smith goes to Brussels and you give her five minutes to speak at one o clock in the morning, it’s about the same treatment that David Cameron got when he came to announce the referendum. At least this time the French President didn’t leave the table to go to the bathroom.
When Mr Juncker was asked by a British journalist how the negotiations were going he said puff, though I can’t really do Gaelic shrugs very well, but the impression is that you are simply too busy to even discuss Brexit or take it seriously.
Basically you’re hoping that we’ll change our minds, Mr Tusk alluded to that a couple of months ago and I know there has been a long tradition here whether it has been Denmark or France or Ireland or the Netherlands that when there is a democratic referendum you try to either ignore it or overturn it and again we heard today Mr Juncker urging the Dutch government to ignore the referendum result on the Ukraine.
Frankly the whole thing is a disgrace and it’s even worse that it is supported by quislings in the British parliament, people like Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, who are desperate to keep Britain inside this awful Single Market. Well I’m sorry but it simply isn’t going to happen, there are 17.4 million people who could not have been clearer, we voted to say ‘we want our country back’ and in the end that is what is going to happen.
I have to confess though that Mrs May’s position in her five minutes was somewhat curious, for her to be arguing that we have a full vote and a full say in all EU affairs up until the time we leave is a very mixed message and I’ve seen already this morning that some here take it as a sign of weakness. We need to get on with it, every single day that goes by is a lost opportunity and you only have to see that after seven years of negotiation the proposed trade deal with Canada, having been vetoed by the Walloons, absolutely proves to you that in a modern twenty-first century global economy that the European Union simply isn’t fit for purpose.
And I want us to get on with it because this club is very expensive, we’re paying in net 30 million every day, now some will argue it’s a bit less, some will argue it’s a bit more, either way it is too much. We’re helping to finance this monthly travelling circus to Strasbourg and worst of all I’ve now discovered in your staff regulations that up to five percent of employees every year are allowed to retire five years early and receive full pay and entitlements for five years for doing absolutely nothing. I mean nowhere else in the world would allow this sort of thing to go on, so I want us to get on with it.
Interestingly I met a large number of Scandinavian businesses the other day and they’re worried, they’re anxious and why? Because they know that the United Kingdom is the Eurozone’s biggest export market in the world and they want to crack on. They know that the EU has trade deals with several countries in the world that involves no free movement of people and their logic is if we can do a deal like that with Mexico then why on earth wouldn’t we do it with our most important trading global partner and that actually is common sense coming from European businesses, common sense I think coming from most people in the United Kingdom, the only obstacle appears to be coming from the high priests of Euro-federalism in this room today.
If you think by delaying Brexit, if you think by stopping Brexit, you are going to help your own businesses, your own industries, you’re wrong. It is in the mutual interest of all of us to get on with this and conclude a sensible, straight-forward, tariff-free deal.
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• Video: EbS (European Parliament)
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