Brexit 'I think ultimately Ireland will leave the EU too' - Nigel Farage Close 1/1 Nigel Farage, ex-leader of Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP), speaks at Trinity College in Dublin Gallery 1 Nigel Farage, ex-leader of Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP), speaks at Trinity College in Dublin

NIGEL Farage said he believes that Ireland will ultimately leave the European Union.

The former UKIP leader took part in a heated discussion on a segment on RTÉ's Claire Byrne Live last night about how Brexit will affect Ireland.

Ms Byrne questioned Farage about whether he had ever considered "how all of this would impact Ireland".

"Did you and do you care?" she asked.

"Oh I do, and I think ultimately Ireland will leave the European Union too," Farage said.

Show more

Ms Byrne said that latest poll figures in Ireland show that 88pc of people said they would stay in the EU, "so that's not going to happen".

Results of an Amarach Research poll with the Claire Byrne Live show said that 86pc of voters would choose a united Ireland over a hard border, if the choice was between those two options.

But Mr Farage insisted that the "European Union is not going to survive" and questioned Ireland's response to the Lisbon Treaty in 2008.

"Just as you were all going to vote for the Lisbon Treaty and in the end you didn't, you all voted against the Lisbon Treaty, you were forced to vote again," he said.

Ms Byrne responded that the people of Ireland had questions on sovereignty and that the second Lisbon referendum was not presented the same way as the first.

Concluding the discussion, Mr Farage described it as "meaningless" and said that the current European Union "will not stand the test of time".

"It was all completely meaningless anyway. Look all over Europe, what you are seeing is the growth of real opposition to this project.

"The idea that Europe's laws should be set and made by a group of unelected old men in Brussels, it's an idea whose time has past.

"I don't just want the UK out of the European Union, I want a Europe of sovereign democratic state, working and trading closely together. But this current system will not stand the test of time, believe me."

Meanwhile, there was dismay in Dublin last night as it emerged Mrs May told her party to back a House of Commons vote which seeks to replace the backstop with "alternative arrangements"

The backstop is an 'insurance policy' which ties the UK to European regulations in order to prevent a hard Border in Ireland.

Online Editors