Nigel Farage today predicted that Brexit will be delayed if Theresa May stays on as Prime Minister - after he admitted winding Donald Trump up about the UK's departure.

The former Ukip leader - a close friend of the President's - said he thinks 'the establishment' will conspire and Mrs May will decide to delay Article 50, which enacts Brexit, later this year.

He also lashed the Tory leader branding her the 'worst Prime Minister I have seen in my lifetime'.

His remarks, made on Chanel 5's Wright Stuff, comes after he admitted that he had been winding up the US President over the UK's departure.

Nigel Farage has admitted he had been 'winding up' his friend Donald Trump before his incendiary Brexit interview accusing Theresa May of wrecking it

Mr Trump sent the Special Relationship into meltdown today after giving an interview trashing Mrs May's Brexit plans and killing off hopes of a trade deal.

Mr Farage told the show: 'May, if she survives, will go to Brussels and Monsieur Barnier, that charming Frenchman, will play for time and there’ll be a panic mid-September, a crisis in mid-September. “Oh, we’ve for for weeks to get this deal sorted, there isn’t time, let’s suspend Article 50.”

'And when we suspend Article 50, which means we won't actually leave the European Union treaties on March the 29th next year, if we get to that then the act of betrayal will be there for all to see. There's going to be massive political ramifications if that happens.'

He said that if the PM clings on to power then she will probably delay Brexit in the autumn.

He said: 'I hope she goes. If she doesn't go, what the establishment will try and do is to postpone Article 50, to postpone the date.'

He added: ' I hope she's out within a fortnight, personally.

'I mean, this is the worst Prime Minister I've seen in my lifetime in terms of her ability, her authority to lead. She doesn't have it. She's deeply out of her depth and she's trying through Brexit to hold together both wings of her party.'

Last night, Mr Farage was quizzed on whether he had 'wound up' Mr Trump about Brexit on BBC's This Week and said: 'We've had the odd chat about it, I like to have a chat with them (Team Trump).'

The former UKIP leader also told Andrew Neil on This Week that Trump and his team are: 'Probably more Eurosceptic than I am'

Donald Trump was with Theresa May last night for a lavish dinner at Blenheim Palace just as his incendiary interview criticising her was published

Presenter Andrew Neil said Mr Farage's hand 'was all over the article' in The Sun, to which the MEP said: 'Oh, on balance they're probably more Eurosceptic than I am.'

When Mr Neil asked Mr Farage if the US President said anything 'factually accurate' during his extraordinary NATO press conference yesterday he responded: 'You need to always take Donald Trump seriously but not always literally.

'He shoots from the hip but his instincts are string and his direction of travel is generally right'.

Speaking to reporters in Belgium after a fiery Nato Summit, Mr Trump had described the UK as a 'hot spot right now with a lot of resignations' and dismissed the Prime Minister's Chequers plan on the next stage of Brexit.

'I would say Brexit is Brexit,' he told reporters.

'The people voted to break it up so I would imagine that's what they would do, but maybe they're taking a different route, I don't know if that is what they voted for.'

He added that it seemed as if the UK was 'getting at least partially involved back with the European Union'.

'I'd like to see them be able to work it out so it could go quickly,' he said.

It comes just days after Mr Trump declined to say whether Mrs May should remain in post, said he had 'always liked' Boris Johnson, who quit as foreign secretary over the Chequers agreement, and described the UK as being in 'turmoil'.

Mr Trump went further and suggested to the Sun Mr Johnson was 'a great representative for your country'.

Trump has made a series of incendiary comments about Brexit and the state of the UK politics and Nigel Farage didn't deny he had 'wound up' his friend

Asked if he could become prime minister he added: 'Well I am not pitting one against the other. I am just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he's got what it takes.'

The Trumps had earlier arrived at Stansted with their sizeable entourage.

Protests took place outside the Blenheim grounds in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, with several hundred demonstrators waving banners and placards reading Dump Trump, Not Welcome Here, Protect Children Not Trump and Keep Your Tiny Hands Off My Pussy!

There were also demonstrations close to Winfield House, the US ambassador's residence near Regents Park where the president and first lady Melania Trump have spent the night.

Some carried placards saying Special Relationship? Just Say No and No To Trump, No To War.

But they avoided the noise and spectacle of the protests on the ground by travelling by helicopter between the airport, London and Oxfordshire.