Nigel Farage has claimed Downing Street has banned cabinet ministers from talking to him.

The former Ukip leader also said he wanted to be a “bridge” between Donald Trump’s US and the UK, the BBC reported. Farage was the first senior UK politician to meet the president-elect following his surprise victory.

Downing Street did not comment on Farage’s latest remarks but previously brushed off the chances of him becoming a go-between, insisting there was “no vacancy”.



Farage told BBC Radio 4: “If you wanted to get business from the biggest company in the world and there was someone there that had the contacts and connections, the first thing you do is to employ that person.

“I find the fact that Downing Street don’t want to acknowledge me, have banned cabinet ministers from even talking to me, it shows you the sort of very small-minded, petty, tribal level that British politics is at – it’s a shame.”



Asked about his relationship with the president-elect, he said: “I can’t make big decisions, but I tell you what I can do, what I genuinely can do, is I can help to be a bridge between the government in this country and the new trade department in this country and not just Donald Trump, but his team and his administration. And I would like to do that.”

On whether he could secure a trade deal for the UK that the prime minister, Theresa May, could not, he said he thought that “trade deal is potentially there on offer”.

“He [Donald Trump] is going to be inaugurated in a few weeks’ time and, mark my words, this is a very big anglophile president that is taking over, and that is good for us,” he added.

Responding to a question about a spike in hate crime after the EU referendum, Farage said he had received 10 death threats in the last two weeks.



He added: “Have there been yobs and louts that have behaved badly since Brexit? Yes. But, you know what, they were behaving badly before Brexit.”



Last month, Farage was pictured grinning in a gold-plated lift alongside the president-elect at his New York skyscraper. Trump then shocked Westminster by sending a late-night tweet saying Farage would do a “great job” as Britain’s ambassador to the US.