Farage issues warning over ‘Brexit betrayal’

LONDON — If Prime Minister Theresa May allows Brexit to be watered down or halted by supporters of European Union membership, Britain will be thrust into its gravest constitutional crisis since World War II, Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage said.

Farage, who as UKIP leader convinced Prime Minister Theresa May’s predecessor, David Cameron, to call the Brexit referendum and then helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, said Brexit was now in danger of being scuttled by the establishment.

The 53-year-old former commodities trader cast May, who voted to stay in the EU, as “Theresa the appeaser” for giving in to Brussels on almost every element of Brexit negotiations and said Britain was being humiliated by the EU.

“At worst they are going to make us fight the whole thing again,” said Farage. “That is a significant betrayal of what many millions voted for.”

Since the referendum, supporters of EU membership have been exploring a range of legal and political methods to prevent what they see as a colossal mistake.

Opponents of Brexit are trying to garner enough support in the lower house of parliament, the House of Commons, to block any possible withdrawal deal May brings back from Brussels in October.

“The real crunch point is ultimately going to be the meaningful vote in the House of Commons on whatever deal we get and that is the point at which it is not impossible to see this country plunged into a constitutional crisis,” Farage said.

“The chances of this being the case get higher with every week that goes by,” he continued. “If the deal is rejected on a confidence motion, then you are looking at general elections or you are looking at another referendum.”