UKIP leader Gerard Batten has said that the European Union is “laughing at us” after Theresa May published her proposed EU Withdrawal Agreement.

The agreement was followed by seven resignations, including from Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.

Mr Batten told talkRADIO’s Dan Wooton: “It is an absolute disaster. it is not something that is acceptable to Leavers or Remainers.

“Because, what she has managed to negotiate is actually a deal where we end up worse off than if we actually stayed in the European Union.

“The reason it is so bad is not because it is something that can’t be done but because she has gone about it in completely the wrong way for the last two years.

“If you were trying to leave the European Union, this is the last way you would set about it.

“You’re asking them for a deal, when they have no incentive to give you.

“If you were going to leave, you would actually present them with what you are actually going to do.”

“You actually take the initiative because with what she has done – they are laughing at us.”

'An electoral threat'

I believe with every fibre of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people. pic.twitter.com/L41ta6Wati — Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 15, 2018

​​​​​​​

Mr Batten said that he did not want “UKIP’s fortunes” to be based on Mrs May’s deal.

“We do not want to do well on the basis of not leaving the European Union,” he said.

“This is not a cynical operation as far as we are concerned.

“We were formed 25 years ago and I was in the room that did it.

“We achieved the referendum by being an electoral threat but we don’t want UKIP’s fortunes based on something that is bad for Britain.

“We want something that is good for Britain and we absolutely believe that getting out of the European Union will be a good thing.

“It gives me no pleasure to be sitting here faced with this appalling deal from Mrs May where we leave in name but not in reality.

“I would much prefer that she had done the job and that we were facing a real, complete, unencumbered deal.”