Nigel Farage says UK could be worse off after Brexit if Theresa May fails to get tough with Brussels

Nigel Farage has said Britain could be worse off after leaving the EU unless Theresa May gets tough with Brussels in the Brexitnegotiations.

The former Ukip boss said Ms May was “the wrong leader” to take Britain out of the bloc, as the EU knows she would never walk away from the negotiations, despite her mantra that “no deal is better than a bad deal”.

Mr Farage, who is regarded as one of the architects of Brexit, has been bullish in the past about Britain’s economic prospects after leaving the EU.

Squabbling cabinet to hold Chequers away-day on Brexit

But he warned that Ms May was being forced into a series of damaging concessions by failing to make a show of strength to Brussels.

Mr Farage told the Today programme: “We have the got wrong leader. If we had a leader who actually believed in Brexit and was prepared to see there was a vision for the future we could make a success of it.

“We will finish up perhaps in an even worse place than we are now because we won’t be free to deregulate, we won’t be free to go out in the world and make our own deals, we won’t be controlling our own borders and we will still be accepting rules from Brussels.”

He added: “Here’s the problem – Trump walks away from things, he rather enjoys it actually. Theresa May parroted ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’, I think just to get votes in the general election and [Michel] Barnier knows the one thing the prime minister will not do under any circumstances is walk away.

“That’s why we are having to make a series of concessions, and kicking the can down the road to the extent that even if things go to plan we are not going to get any form of Brexit until at least six years after the people voted.”

It comes after a bruising couple of days for the prime minister, where rebellions over Brexit from both David Davis and Boris Johnson risked overshadowing her appearance at the G7 summit in Canada.

Ms May will gather her warring ministers at Chequers to thrash out key parts of the government’s Brexit position, where she will attempt to unite her cabinet on the details in the much-anticipated white paper.

However the away day at her Buckinghamshire residence will come after a crunch summit with EU leaders later this month.

She told EU leaders at the summit in Quebec that ”we’ll be talking about finalising withdrawal agreement but also pressing on the future relationship” during the cabinet trip.

Tensions over Brexit threatened to bubble over this week, when Ms May had to make a last-minute customs compromise with David Davis, her Brexit secretary, after he threatened to resign over her “backstop” proposals for the Irish border.

She was also forced to say she had “full confidence” in Boris Johnson, when leaked recordings emerged of the foreign secretary directly criticising her approach and warning of a “Brexit meltdown”.

John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh

An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon

Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. ‘I’ve been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again,’ Johnson said laughing. ‘We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that it’s gone, we wouldn't like it back again’

Farmer Gordon Crockett’s Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. ‘At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day,’ said Crockett. ‘If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day’

A defaced ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh

Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio – the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. ‘When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village,’ said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. ‘Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village’

Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry

Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland

Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry

An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan

Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic

Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. ‘I live in the south but the business is in the North,’ said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if there’s duty, I’ll have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. I’ll have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast’

A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim

Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. ‘I’d be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, you’d have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful,’ said Mullen. ‘All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief’

A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh

The prime minister told reporters at the G7: ”People like Boris have strong views on Brexit but so do I. I want to deliver Brexit for the British people – that’s what people want. And I am getting on and doing it.”

She added: “At every stage of these negotiations we have seen people casting doubt on whether or not we will achieve what we want to achieve.”

It also comes ahead of a Commons showdown next week, where MPs are gearing up for a fraught two-day battle over the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, the government’s flagship piece of Brexit legislation.

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