Nigel Farage raged at ‘Theresa the Appeaser’ today as MEPs clashed over the Brexit divorce deal.
The former Ukip leader said the EU was ‘delighted’ with the agreement because the PM had ‘given in on virtually everything’.
He branded signing up to a £39billion divorce deal ‘ludicrous’ and warned that concessions over rights of EU citizens would mean ‘open door immigration for years to come’.
The scathing assessment came as a close ally of Angela Merkel gloated about the exit package during a fiery debate in the European Parliament.
Manfred Weber faced shouts of ‘rubbish’ as he claimed that most Britons had now changed their minds about leaving the EU.
The senior MEP said the UK had been forced to bow to the will of Ireland over the border issue, saying: ‘The British will lose a lot’.
The incendiary comments came as MEPs debated the divorce deal package ahead of an EU summit tomorrow, which is due to sign off the start of trade talks.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage slammed the divorce deal in the European Parliament today
Manfred Weber (pictured right) faced shouts of ‘rubbish’ today as he claimed that most Britons had now changed their minds about leaving the EU. Guy Verhofstadt (left) said Ireland would not become ‘collateral damage’ in the Brexit talks
The former Ukip leader said the EU was ‘delighted’ with the agreement because the PM had ‘given in on virtually everything
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier told the session that there was still work to be done in areas like citizens’ rights but ‘sufficient progress’ had been made to move on to the next phase.
He said he hoped the framework he was setting would make those talks ‘more serene’ than the first stage.
But the debate showed little evidence that would be the case.
Mr Weber, who heads the main centre-right group in the parliament, said a poll had shown 50 per cent of Britons wanted a second referendum.
‘The British people realise now that Brexit means losing many things, but not necessarily gaining them,’ he said.
Amid shouts of ‘rubbish’ from UK MEPs, he added: ‘The British will lose a lot.’
Mr Weber said the UK had been able to impose terms on the Irish border in years gone by, but Dublin’s membership of the EU meant it was much more ‘powerful’.
The parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt and the leader of the socialist group Gianni Pittella attacked David Davis for suggesting that the deal on the Irish border was merely a ‘statement of intent’ and not legally enforceable.
Mr Verhofstadt raged: ‘Ireland cannot become the collateral damage of Brexit. We will not let it happen.’
But Mr Weber was taken to task by Tory politician Syed Kamall over his jibe that the EU represented the modern world.
Mr Kamall said he is Muslim and saw the EU institutions as still having a ‘lot of work to do’ on diversity.
Mr Barnier drew battle lines on the divorce deal yesterday after Mr Davis was accused of ‘undermining trust’ and behaving like a ‘gangster’.
He warned that the bloc would ‘not accept any backtracking’ on the package that was painstakingly assembled by Theresa May in Brussels last week.
He also raised the stakes on trade, warning there was ‘no possibility’ of a full agreement on the future relationship being reached by the time Brexit happens in March 2019. By contrast Mr Davis suggested at the weekend that a trade deal could be struck ‘one minute’ after we leave the EU.
The combative comments came after Mr Davis scrambled to defuse a bitter row over playing down the UK’s commitments on the Irish border.
Furious MEPs seized on the ‘unacceptable’ remarks to accuse the UK of ‘behaving like gangsters’, while Mr Weber opened a new front by warning the UK should not ‘assume’ it will get a transition period if it does not honour commitments.
EU leaders responded by signalling a crucial summit on Friday will push for fast progress on writing the divorce deal – which also includes a £39billion financial payment and guarantees on rights for EU citizens – into a formal Treaty.
At a press conference in Brussels this evening, Mr Barnier echoed the hard line.
‘We will have a final agreement only if the political commitments taken by May in the name of the British Govt last Friday are respected and we will be vigilant. We will not accept any backtracking from the UK,’ he said.
In a letter to EU premiers, council chief Donald Tusk appealed for them to stand together in the second phase of the talks. ‘This will be a furious race against time, where again our unity will be key,’ he said.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he hoped that the next phase of Brexit talks would be more ‘serene’
MEPs debated the divorce deal package ahead of an EU summit tomorrow, which is due to sign off the start of trade talk