Nigel Farage (left) and Richard Tice of the Brexit Party talk to the media outside 10 Downing Street on June 7, 2019 in London | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Brexit Party misses first deadline to form political group in European Parliament As the leader of an orphan party, Nigel Farage will be granted significantly less speaking time in the hemicycle.

Nigel Farage's Brexit Party has missed an initial deadline to be part of a political grouping in the European Parliament, meaning less funding and support staff, and less speaking time in the legislature for the leader himself.

The party can still join or form a group anytime throughout the legislature. But political groups had until Wednesday to submit their name and composition to the legislature's administration. Several Parliament officials said that Farage's former "Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy" group had not been added to the official list. "Farage and 5Star doesn't have a group," said one official, referring to Italy's 5Star movement which was also part of the EFDD.

Forming a group in the Parliament opens up funding, staff, and speaking time — and confers more influence in the legislature. If Farage doesn't form a group, he will no longer sit at the front of the hemicycle, share a secretary-general with other non-affiliated members and be granted significantly less speaking time than in the last Parliament.

If the Brexit Party fails to join or form a group during the first two sessions of the new legislature, they will miss the opportunity to take up positions of influence in the Parliament's 20 committees. In addition, the Parliament is likely to adopt its traditional "cordon sanitaire" around Euroskeptic groups as a way to prevent them from getting high positions.

Hermann Kelly, the EFDD spokesperson said the group still regarded the second parliamentary session in Strasbourg starting on July 15 as an "informal deadline" to announce the formation of a group. "If and when we reform the group, we'll publicise it to all," he said.

Last month, Farage said he would "not join" the Europe of Nations and Freedoms group, the former group of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's League party.

Under Parliament rules, a political party needs 25 MEPs from seven EU countries to be able to form a group.

Farage's former UKIP party was previously part of the EFDD group with Italy's 5Star movement and France's Les Patriotes.

But the group no longer has the numbers required to become a fully fledged group. Les Patriotes no longer have any MEPs and the 5Star movement has tried to join other groups, including the Greens, which turned them down.

A 5Star spokesperson said that the movement "is working and taking a few additional days to think about it rather than communicate on any European positioning." "We want a true change of the EU, not a hypocritical one," the spokesperson said.