By David Challice

If they misbehave and continue their silly games, they’ll find themselves staring at an empty chair in Brussels. The Golden Goose would have flown, without lea David Challice UK communications manager

Didn’t Mr Corbyn do well at the general election…. Also, of course, Mrs May ran a dreadful campaign. It was like watching Manchester United losing to Yeovil Town in the FA Cup because they couldn’t be chuffed to field a goalie

But things would have been different if people had known how Labour would later try to sabotage Brexit. Eurosceptic Labour voters would have stayed home, or supported UKIP, my party. They were never going to vote Tory. Old Labour voters would rather jump off Beachy Head in a suit of armour than vote Conservative. But instead they calculated: “Corbyn will honour Brexit so let’s give him a chance”.

Jeremy Corbyn resembles an Uncle with secrets; the Black Sheep of the family they don’t talk about because he’s been “away”. Suddenly he turns up at your door in his Bentley, inviting the whole family out to dinner. A charming host, at a swish restaurant, with attentive waiters, great food, fine wine, cognac, cigars, flowers and Belgian chocolate. You love it so much you don’t even mind when he slips off without paying the bill.

On the subject of bills, the EU is now demanding £53-billion before they’ll even discuss a Trade Deal. That’s not friendly.

No Prime Minister could possibly hand over money desperately needed here, for NHS, schools, police, social care, prisons, HS2, broadband etc. How could they? Think of the fury when Mrs May was accused of “bribing” the DUP with £1-billion to prop up her Government. Brussels makes that look about as serious as raiding the tea money. It would be political suicide. The country would rise against her.

I predict Mrs May will walk out of the negotiations in early 2018, possibly leading to a general election, certainly a leadership challenge. We tried dealing sensibly with Brussels but I’m afraid it didn’t work. The EU doesn’t want a serious deal. The EU wants to crucify us upside down at the roadside as a public example to others.

What none of them realise is that Brexit Britain has the upper-hand. We should tell them straight: “We are not going to discuss Trade. When we leave the EU we will not apply tariffs to your goods, as long as you don’t slap them onto ours. But if you hit us with tariffs then we will go onto WTO rules. Totally your choice. You will lose more than us”.

Remember, 20% of all German cars are sold in Britain. We might even find Audi, VW, Mercedes opening factories here, in order to escape tariffs.

We can also tell Brussels: “EU citizens in Britain must register and will then be free to stay here permanently. They will not bring in friends and relatives to live here, and not send benefits home to families in Europe. EU Law will not apply here, anymore than US or Chinese Law applies here. We accept that the same rules will apply to British citizens resident in the EU.”

As for the Divorce Bill, yes, we could certainly agree to pay for two year’s EU bills (£18 billion during the implementation process) because we originally committed to that budget period and that two-years would give a breathing space to allow everyone, on both sides of the Channel, to adjust to the new reality of Brexit Britain. But we would reserve the right to make foreign deals with trading nations all around the world, setting them up in advance to ensure a smooth exit.

If they object to that then we just walk away. Their choice. They are tightening the screw by applying time-pressure. We can apply our own. They need our money. If they misbehave and continue their silly games, they’ll find themselves staring at an empty chair in Brussels. The Golden Goose would have flown, without leaving a single egg.

For many years we shovelled money into the EU’s coffers (second largest contributor after Germany) so we have more than paid our share.

We have £9-billion deposited with the European Investment Bank, and have paid vast sums to build various EU Government office-blocks across Brussels and Strasbourg. They can keep them. We won’t need them again.

Remainers constantly warn that Brexit will be “Falling off a cliff!” The Four Horsemen will gallop through Plymouth. Exeter will suffer a tsunami. Godzilla will swim so far up the Thames he can pop across to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage for a pot of tea and a slice of lemon-drizzle cake. But it’s all doom-laden nonsense from people who should know better.

Britain must regain her mojo, her self-confidence. There’s a big wide world out there, and the cell door has swung open. Rather than sitting on our cot like institutionalised zombies we need to emerge into the daylight. We have a great chance of building a sustainable fishing and farming industry, to help businesses employ more people, and generally increase prosperity for all, exporting to distant markets.

But we won’t do it by back-sliding on Brexit, and settling for a bad deal that pleases no-one and is the worst of all worlds.

David Challice is communications manager for UKIP

The opinions expressed in View articles do not reflect those of Euronews