SQUEAKY PREEN
Nigel Farage rages at ‘pipsqueak’ Luxembourg PM for trying to ‘ritually humiliate’ Boris Johnson at Brexit talks
NIGEL Farage has today blasted Luxembourg's "pipsqueak" PM for trying to "ritually humiliate" Boris Johnson at Brexit talks.
The Brexit Party leader attacked Xavier Bettel for insisting on holding a press conference in front of a baying Remainer crowd - and "empty-chairing" the British Prime Minister after he refused.
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Speaking at the European Parliament today, Mr Farage slammed Mr Bettel's behaviour, after Boris held crunch talks on a deal to leave the EU on Monday.
The former Ukip leader said: "I'm of course referring to the pipsqueak prime minister of Luxembourg, who set out ritually humiliate a British prime minister in the most astonishing way only to be greeted like a hero by President Macron."
Mr Farage, the cheerleader for a "clean break Brexit", was speaking in the European Parliament today after EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned the risk of no deal remains "very real".
Speaking today Mr Juncker said there was still a "palpable" risk of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.
But he told MEPs the talks with the PM had been "friendly, constructive and, in part, positive".
He went on: "The Commission is prepared to work day in day out, morning until night - with a few breaks - to try to find the technical and political solutions we need but I am not sure that we will get there.
"There is very little time remaining but what I do know is that we have to keep trying."
The main sticking point over a Brexit deal is the controversial Irish border backstop, which would require Britain to retain some EU trade rules.
Echoing Mr Juncker's words Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said he was willing to work "night and day" to get a deal with the UK.
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In response Mr Farage claimed any new divorce agreement would leave the UK trapped in Europe.
He said it would leave the UK reliant on the "good faith" of the EU when it came to negotiating the future relationship.
Mr Farage claimed the "objective" of Mr Barnier "from the start" was to "keep us trapped inside".
He said the EU feared the "UK breaks out of the customs union, breaks out of the single market rules and we become more competitive and we become much wealthier outside the European Union than within it."
He went on: "The only way forward now is to deliver on the referendum is for a clean break Brexit.
"Once we have done that we will have a grown-up conversation about trade and about the way forward."
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