Farage backs off second Brexit referendum talk

LEADING British anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage rowed back on Wednesday from remarks favouring a second referendum on Brexit, a week after he unleashed a new round of debate and a chorus of invitations from European politicians for Britain to reconsider.

In a boisterous exchange with Irish premier Leo Varadkar, Mr Farage, who leads the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament, said there was an establishment plot to thwart the will of British voters and keep Britain in the EU.

“You are part of course of a big attempt here and elsewhere to frustrate and to attempt to overturn Brexit,” Mr Farage said.

“I don’t want a second referendum on Brexit. Absolutely not. But I fear that you are all working together with Tony Blair and Nick Clegg to make sure we get the worst possible deal,” he said, referring to a former prime minister and a former deputy prime minister who have campaigned for a new vote to keep Britain in. A second referendum on Brexit has been ruled out by Prime Minister Theresa May and is also not backed by opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Britain served its two-year notice last March, putting it on course to exit the EU in 2019. Mr Farage’s flirtation with a new vote (he told a talk show host last week he was warming to the idea as a way to “kill off” support for staying in the EU “for a generation”) captured imaginations in Europe, where politicians are resigned to Britain leaving but reluctant to close the path for it to stay.

On Tuesday, European Council president Donald Tusk weighed in on the debate, telling Britons that “our hearts are still open to you” if they change their minds.

On Wednesday, the EU’s chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that the Union would still be ready to welcome Britain back into the bloc even after it leaves.

“We are not throwing out the British, we want them to stay. And if they want to, they should be able to,” he said. “Once the British have left under Article 50 there is still Article 49 which allows a return to membership and I would like that.”

Seb Dance, a Labour member of the European Parliament from London and staunch Brexit opponent, told the chamber: “There are people up and down the breadth of the United Kingdom who are fighting Brexit.

“So don’t count us out yet. As Farage has said, this issue is not settled.”