Nigel Farage says Leave voters will not get what they voted for at end of Brexit transition period

Nigel Farage in the parliament chamber at the European Parliament in Brussels. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has claimed that the first day of independence from the European Union will leave Brexiteers angry – as it will not be what they voted for.

Despite backing the Brexit deal in the European Parliament, and celebrating the start of the transition period on January 31, the leading Brexiteer has claimed supporters on January 1 next year will not get the ‘true freedom’ that they have ‘fought for decades’ to achieve.

Farage said the Withdrawal Agreement that his organisation backed, along with Brexiteer MPs in the House of Commons, will never leave the UK ‘free’ as a result of the negotiated document with the EU.

Writing in the Express, he said: ‘My own guess is that a deal will be reached in the coming months but one in which we have continued financial liabilities through the European Investment Bank and one in which we will not truly be free in areas such as state aid.

‘The year 2020 will be remembered in history as the year we finally left the European Union, but the final shape of our withdrawal looks unlikely to be the true freedom that many of us had fought for decades.’

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Farage previously protested the deal, saying it was no better than Theresa May’s proposals, but appeared to drop his resistance to the bill by standing down candidates in the general election to support Boris Johnson.

But despite admitting it is not what Brexiteers voted for in the EU referendum, he said it was better to back Johnson than allow a second referendum.

He explained: ‘If the Brexit Party fought every seat and condemned the deal, there was a real risk that our vote would allow many more pro-EU Liberal Democrats into the House of Commons.

‘This may well have led to a second referendum, something that would have damaged trust in our political system for many years to come.’

Shortly after the election he went on to vote for the deal, and then waved flags as his MEPs backed it. In a rant at the European Commission he insisted that ‘Britain is too big to be bullied’ before having his microphone cut off.