Nigel Farage has said Brexit has been a “success” and that Britain stands “taller in the world” having left the European Union.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Reform UK leader was asked whether he saw Brexit “objectively as a success” 10 years on.
He replied: “Yes, I do. We certainly stand taller in the world. The terrible projections of doom as to what would happen to our financial sector etc haven’t happened.
“Our growth rates are higher than our European competitors. Our exports, particularly of services to the European Union, have actually rocketed, and we’ve now got more trade deals and more options around the rest of the world.”
Farage said he was the “father of a movement which I led for many years, single-handedly pretty much, that’s got back the independence, self-government, and democratic right of this country”.
But he added: “Now the next question is, what do we do with it, and what have we done with it since the Brexit vote? Well, far too little, and that’s led to disappointment.”
UK Independence Party founded by anti-Maastricht campaigners
Farage’s comments appear to mark a shift from 2023, when he told BBC Newsnight: “Brexit has failed. We’ve not delivered on Brexit and the Tories have let us down very, very badly.”
Challenged on this, Farage responded: “Brexit has failed in the eyes of many voters who voted Leave to get lower immigration numbers into Britain is exactly what I said, and you know what? That was a disaster.”
He said Brexit “wouldn’t have carried the line had it not been for free movement”, and that the Conservatives “extended free movement to the rest of the world” once they had the power to deal with it.
He added: “So yes, in the eyes of many, the delivery of Brexit has been a failure.”
Farage turned his fire on the prime minister, Andy Burnham, saying he was “misleading everybody” by claiming the UK had less control over immigration with Brexit than it had as a member of the EU.
“That is just not true,” he said. “And if he wants to have this fight on those terms, I am ready for it.”
Shabana Mahmood appears to dispute Brexit’s role in small boats crisis
Farage added: “Five months ago, Andy Burnham says to Leave-voting Makerfield, ‘I’m not going to reopen these arguments.’
“Two and a half years ago, a Labour government got a massive majority in parliament saying we will not be re-entering the single market, the customs union, or opening up the debate on the free movement of people.
“What I am saying is this: this prime minister has no mandate, and to hear that his officials are negotiating in Brussels already is really very, very poor indeed.”
