British PM begging for EU concessions ‘humbling and humiliating’ – UKIP’s Farage to RT
The move by the British PM to get a “credible deal” with Brussels to persuade Brits to stay in the EU has been called “humiliating” by the head of the UK Independence Party, who told RT that David Cameron will not be able to guarantee anything to the UK public.
Cameron is currently in Brussels for a two-day summit negotiating with EU leaders on ways to settle the question of Britain's European Union membership. He is seeking a “credible” deal that he can use to convince the British public to stay in the bloc ahead of the referendum, with June 23 being the most likely polling date.
“I will be battling for Britain, if we can get a good deal, I will take that deal, but I will not take a deal that doesn’t meet what we need,” Cameron said on his arrival, as London demands EU reforms.
But Nigel Farage, the head of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), has called Cameron’s move to seek a better deal for the UK within the EU a “humiliating” one, and compared the British PM to an orphan from Charles Dickens’ novel.
“What you got today is a British Prime Minister looking likely like the Charles Dickens figure of Oliver Twist, you know walking up and saying, please sir, can I please have some more concessions. I find it pretty humbling and humiliating that a British Prime Minister has to do that,” Farage told RT.
While no major breakthrough has been made on the first day of discussion in dealing with the threat of a potential Brexit, over two hours of negotiations, diplomats expressed hope that a deal could be worked out by Friday night.
“It became clear that agreement will not be easy for many, but that the will is there,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, adding that “the wish is there to keep Britain as a member of the European Union.”
However, Irish PM Enda Kenny said “it might take longer than they think,” for EU members to reach an agreement Cameron.
One of the main sticking points in discussions is the UK’s demand for financial safeguards and curbs on benefits for EU migrant workers in Britain. The negotiations in Brussels are the culmination of months of high-level talks between London and other European capitals about EU reform.
But no matter what deal Cameron takes back to London, Farage says there will still be no guarantees for Britain.
“He cannot look at the British people in the eye and guarantee them this is where we will end up, even if he wins a referendum on us staying members of the union,” the UKIP chief told RT.
He explained that “nearly half” of the European Parliament opposes the new renegotiation of the existing treaties, while the European Court of Justice offers “little promise that Britain is not going to get committed to further political integration.”
Finally, as the Vienna Convention on Treaties “makes clear that the existing treaties have precedent over any new protocol,” Farage says it is “very unlikely” that EU nations will agree to rewrite any of the EU treaties.
“Compared to the Bloomberg speech three years ago when [Cameron] talked about a fundamental new relationship for Britain, the way powers will be brought back to Westminister, that border controls will be on the table, and most laughably that there will be reform of the European Union – those baskets look pretty empty,” Farage said.
