Nigel Farage has admitted that 'Brexit has failed' in a surprising interview on the BBC's Newsnight.
The former leader of UKIP and the Brexit Party conceded that the UK has not benefited substantially from leaving the European Union.
He made the surprising admission after being presented with copious evidence that Brexit had not led Britain to the sunlit uplands of independence UKIP had previously promised.
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Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire highlighted that the UK is the only G7 country whose economy has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Farage maintained that the UK would not have been better off had it remained a part of the EU, but admitted things had perhaps not gone according to plan.
He said: "We haven't actually benefitted from Brexit economically when we could have done.
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"What Brexit has proved, I'm afraid, is that our politicians are about as useless as the commissioners in Brussels. We've mismanaged this totally.
"If you look at simple things such as takeovers, such as cooperation tax, we are driving business away from our country.
"Now we're back in control, we've regulated our own businesses even more than they were as EU members.
"Brexit has failed. We've not delivered on borders, we've not delivered on Brexit. The Tories have let us down very, very badly."
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The admission has raised some eyebrows, with some drawing attention to a comment made by Farage on LBC in 2017.
At the time, Farage took questions from callers. One asked Farage: "If the economy of the UK, if we suffer, as a result, a direct result of us exiting the EU, are you prepared to apologise to this country and leave politics altogether?"
Farage refused to apologise, but did tell the caller: "If Brexit is a disaster, I will go and live abroad. I will go and live somewhere else. But it isn't going to be a disaster."
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Critics of Farage have been swift to take to social media and urge him to make good on his promise.
One tweeted: "You said you'd leave the UK if Brexit was a disaster, and you've called it a failure. Leave my country."
Another said: "Can we crowdfund one way ticket to Europe for Nigel Farage?"
A third said: "Is there a travel fund for our Nige? I'm happy to lob in a few bob."
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Farage is now the president of far-right populist party Reform UK, as well as hosting a show on GB News. He has refused to rule out a return to politics.
Kit Roberts