Rishi Sunak dismisses Nigel Farage's claim 'Brexit has failed'

2023-05-16

Rishi Sunak dismisses Nigel Farage’s claim ‘Brexit has failed’ after ex-UKIP leader hit out at ‘useless’ Tory ministers for ‘mismanaging’ Britain’s departure from EU

No10 rejects a suggestion the UK has not benefitted economically from Brexit

Rishi Sunak today dismissed Nigel Farage’s claim that ‘Brexit has failed’ after the ex-UKIP leader hit out at ‘useless’ Tories for ‘mismanaging’ the UK’s exit from the EU.

The Prime Minister rejected a suggestion by Mr Farage, now president of Reform UK, that Britain had not benefitted economically from cutting ties with Brussels.

Downing Street pointed to new freedoms for farmers and an overhaul of Britain’s agricultural sector as just some of the ways in which the UK has been boosted by Brexit.

It came after Mr Farage told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that the Government was ‘driving business away from our country’ and strangling firms in regulation.

He claimed ministers had ‘not delivered on Brexit’ and did not rule out a comeback to frontline party politics, after he stepped down as leader of Reform UK – formerly known as the Brexit Party – in 2021.

Nigel Farage claimed ‘Brexit has failed’ and hit out at ‘useless’ Tory ministers for ‘mismanaging’ the UK’s exit from the EU

But the Prime Minister rejected the suggestion by Mr Farage, now president of Reform UK, that Britain had not benefitted economically from cutting ties with Brussels

Asked if, economically, Britain would have been better off staying within the EU, Mr Farage said: ‘I don’t think that for a moment.

‘But what I do think is we haven’t actually benefitted from Brexit economically, when we could have done.

‘What Brexit has proved, I’m afraid, is our politicians are about as useless as the commissioners in Brussels were.

‘We have 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.’

Quizzed on whether he would consider a comeback to frontline party politics, Mr Farage added: ‘I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s not 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.’

The PM’s official spokesman today insisted Mr Sunak, who hosted a farming summit in No10 this morning, does not agree with Mr Farage’s view on Brexit.

‘The PM has talked about the benefits of Brexit on a number of occasions,’ he said.

‘Just thinking about farming alone, we’re talking about some of the benefits that moving away from the bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy that skewed money towards the largest landowners – 50 per cent going to the largest 10 per cent.

‘We now have a fairer system tailored to British farmers post-Brexit.’

The spokesman also highlighted new freedoms to use gene-editing technology to allow farmers to ‘mimic the natural breeding process to help farmers grow more nutritious, more productive crops’.

‘Those are just two examples in one sector of the benefits that the public and UK businesses are enjoying,’ he added.

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