FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Guy Verhofstadt mocked Ukip's interim leader apparent eagerness to be given a role in Britain's negotiations with the Donald Trump administration by using Vote Leave’s Brexit battle cry about “taking back control”. The Brussels-based negotiator has always been a critic of the UK’s departure from the bloc, previously accusing Theresa May’s administration of "inflaming tensions" over plans to force firms to declare the number of foreign workers they employ. In his latest attack on Brexit, Mr Verhofstadt, speaking in Strasbourg blasted: "Today there is a ring of autocrats around Europe; Erdogan, Putin, I’m not going as far to put [Donald] Trump in that little list. "They are all doing one thing: bashing Europe, bashing our values, bashing and fighting against our European democracy."

EURO PARL.TV•GETTY Nigel Farage came under attack by the EU's Brexit negotiator in Strasbourg

Putin is financing even groups here in this parliament directly – all nationalist and anti-European Guy Verhofstadt

In a sly did at Mr Farage, who wasn’t in attendance during his speech, he added: "Putin is financing even groups here in this parliament directly – all nationalist, populist and anti-European. "And let's face it, Donald Trump is no better than that, his most important strategic advisor [Steve] Bannon wants to launch an extreme right-wing website – Breitbart. "He has done it already in the US, he wants to do it also in Paris and Berlin, in fact to influence the German election and to influence the French."

EU PARL.TV Guy Verhofstadt also aimed his bizarre rant at Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

In his most direct attack on Mr Farage – the nemesis of arch-federalists across the EU – Mr Verhofstadt ranted: "And Mr Trump wants even to take over the task of her Majesty the Queen, by appointing the ambassadors in the future for Britain. "I'm only asking myself, Mr Farage is not here, but it should be interesting if he could tell us is that 'taking back control' in Britain? "I think one clown in Washington is more than enough, we don’t need more than that." The 63-year-old, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008, famously branded Brexiteers as “rats leaving the sinking ship” during the referendum.

Nigel Farage in pictures Mon, April 3, 2017 Nigel Farage is a British politician who has been the leader of the UK Independence Party since October 2016. Play slideshow Getty 1 of 48 Nigel Farage in pictures