Nigel Farage has admitted he had been ‘winding up’ his friend Donald Trump before his incendiary Brexit interview accusing Theresa May of wrecking it.
The former UKIP leader did not deny that he was the ‘guiding spirit’ behind the US President’s extraordinary intervention and said Trump and his team are: ‘Probably more Eurosceptic than I am’.
President Trump said last night that he offered the Prime Minister advice on how to negotiate Brexit, but she ignored him and did the ‘opposite’.
And in comments sure to infuriate his host, he said Boris Johnson would make a ‘great’ Prime Minister.
Nigel Farage was questioned on whether he had ‘wound up’ Mr Trump about Brexit on BBC’s This Week and said: ‘We’ve had the odd chat about it, I like to have a chat with them (Team Trump).’
Nigel Farage has admitted he had been ‘winding up’ his friend Donald Trump before his incendiary Brexit interview accusing Theresa May of wrecking it
The former UKIP leader also told Andrew Neil on This Week that Trump and his team are: ‘Probably more Eurosceptic than I am’
Donald Trump was with Theresa May last night for a lavish dinner at Blenheim Palace just as his incendiary interview criticising her was published
Presenter Andrew Neil said Mr Farage’s hand ‘was all over the article’ in The Sun, to which the MEP said: ‘Oh, on balance they’re probably more Eurosceptic than I am.’
When Mr Neil asked Mr Farage if the US President said anything ‘factually accurate’ during his extraordinary NATO press conference yesterday he responded: ‘You need to always take Donald Trump seriously but not always literally.
‘He shoots from the hip but his instincts are string and his direction of travel is generally right’.
Speaking to reporters in Belgium after a fiery Nato Summit, Mr Trump had described the UK as a ‘hot spot right now with a lot of resignations’ and dismissed the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan on the next stage of Brexit.
‘I would say Brexit is Brexit,’ he told reporters.
‘The people voted to break it up so I would imagine that’s what they would do, but maybe they’re taking a different route, I don’t know if that is what they voted for.’
He added that it seemed as if the UK was ‘getting at least partially involved back with the European Union’.
‘I’d like to see them be able to work it out so it could go quickly,’ he said.
It comes just days after Mr Trump declined to say whether Mrs May should remain in post, said he had ‘always liked’ Boris Johnson, who quit as foreign secretary over the Chequers agreement, and described the UK as being in ‘turmoil’.
Mr Trump went further and suggested to the Sun Mr Johnson was ‘a great representative for your country’.
Trump has made a series of incendiary comments about Brexit and the state of the UK politics and Nigel Farage didn’t deny he had ‘wound up’ his friend
Asked if he could become prime minister he added: ‘Well I am not pitting one against the other. I am just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he’s got what it takes.’
The Trumps had earlier arrived at Stansted with their sizeable entourage.
Protests took place outside the Blenheim grounds in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, with several hundred demonstrators waving banners and placards reading Dump Trump, Not Welcome Here, Protect Children Not Trump and Keep Your Tiny Hands Off My Pussy!
There were also demonstrations close to Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence near Regents Park where the president and first lady Melania Trump have spent the night.
Some carried placards saying Special Relationship? Just Say No and No To Trump, No To War.
But they avoided the noise and spectacle of the protests on the ground by travelling by helicopter between the airport, London and Oxfordshire.