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Nigel Farage attacks 'snobby Tories' for not working with him

Former Ukip leader unhappy after being snubbed by Government ministers 

Benjamin Kentish
Monday 28 November 2016 14:49 GMT
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Farage attacks 'snobby tories' for not working with him

Nigel Farage has criticised “snobby Tories” for refusing to work with him during the EU referendum campaign and in the weeks after Donald Trump's election as US president.

The former Ukip boss was speaking at a conference held to announce Paul Nuttall, MEP for the North West of England, as winner of the party’s leadership contest.

Mr Farage used his speech to highlight what he considered to be Ukip's achievements over the last year, including the succesful campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.

He said: “We played an absolutely crucial role in that referendum campaign.

"It is to my deep regret that certain slightly snobby Tories didn’t want to work with us but, hey, that's life. I’ve seen a bit more of that in the last couple of weeks, haven’t I?”

Mr Farage’s recent offer to act as an informal bridge between the UK government and new President-elect Trump was firmly rebuffed by Downing Street.

Earlier in the year some Conservative ministers refused to campaign alongside Mr Farage in trying to persuade the British public to vote to leave the EU. The Ukip MEP was part of the Leave.EU campaign while most Tory Eurosceptics instead joined the Vote Leave group.

The successful campaign for Brexit “would not have happened” without Ukip, Mr Farage said, hailing his party’s “crucial role in securing that great historic result”.

He also claimed Ukip “may just have had a bit of an effect on the other side of the Atlantic”.

He said Brexit “directly led to the Establishment getting beaten on 8th November and Donald J Trump [being] about to take the presidency". He added: "We were the inspiration behind much of that."

Mr Nuttall was elected as Ukip's next leader after seeing off the challenge of Suzanne Evans and John Rees-Evans. The previous leader, Diane James, stepped down in October after just 18 days in the job.

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