Border issues are ‘a hoax’, says Farage

NIGEL Farage has rubbished yesterday’s Brexit agreement, saying it is the ‘worst deal in history’ and the former UKIP leader described our concerns about a hard border as ‘a hoax’.

He added that it could lead to Britain losing control over both the North and Gibraltar and said problems on our border could be solved by high-tech tracking devices such as those used on Austrian ski resorts. The MEP said: ‘It’s a funny old day, actually. If you take a step back from the deal and think about the day, of itself, it’s very significant.’ And the Brexiteer does not believe he bears responsibility for any losses to Britain from leaving the EU.

‘Losing?’ he replied. ‘I’m looking forward to what we’ll be gaining. There’s a great big world out there.’

He said the border issue was ‘a hoax, a hoax, a hoax – a complete hoax’ cooked up in Dublin and Brussels by Leo Varadkar and Michel Barnier. He added: ‘Even the Taoiseach, in the last few weeks, has been saying, even in the event of no deal there’s going to be no hard border. The hard border is almost like a hoax that has been put up in all of this.’

He believes border checks ‘could be done online’, saying: ‘Do you know you can book a ski-lift in Austria... and it will tell you what time your ski-lift is, it will measure where you are? You can track how close to your home it is on your mobile phone. All the technology is there and it does exist.’ But he said it appears the Brexit deal will not be passed by the House of Commons. ‘If she [Theresa May] can’t get it through, then we have a proper crisis,’ he said, ‘Legally, we have an Act of Parliament, a withdrawal Act, that says we’re leaving on March 29.

‘Article 50 [of the Lisbon Treaty] doesn’t say that you have to have a deal. Article 50 says that you... try to find a deal. If not, you just leave.’