LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2020) The new leader of the UK Independence Party, Freddy Vachha, warned in an exclusive interview to Sputnik on Monday that both the current UK government and the European Union could not be trusted when it came to delivering an effective Brexit.
June 23 marks four years since the United Kingdom voted by a slim majority to quit the EU, triggering a drawn-out Brexit process that saw the Tory government asking Brussels for a deadline extension twice before the UK eventually quit in January. The 11-month transition period expires in December but the UK-EU talks on their future relationship remain fraught.
"I have driven a truck, and been driven in a truck around London with 'never trust a Tory' written on its side. Below it it said 'couldn't deliver a pizza, let alone Brexit.' That probably summarizes my opinion. They're quite capable of trying something at the last minute and pulling something through," Vachha said.
The pro-Brexit hardliner, who spoke to Sputnik at the site of the National Police Memorial following his inaugural speech, said he was "optimistic but vigilant" that an extension to the existing transitional period would not be sought, but indicated that he did not trust closed-door talks being held in Brussels.
"There are all sorts of dirty money deals going around. The EU has massive slush funds with which to buy its way and buy its influence and unfortunately there are lots of people who are guided by filthy lucre rather than principle. Therefore, no I'm not complacent about this. I'm reasonably optimistic but vigilant," he stated.
Vachha also argued it was a mistake to have ever engaged in the formal process of exiting the EU as enshrined within Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, instead claiming a speedy exit could have been secured by simply dispensing with the original European Communities Act of 1972.
Although this would result in what pro-EU parties have long called an allegedly "disastrous" no deal scenario, a clean break was still desirable, he claimed, especially given the length of time it had taken the UK to reach this stage in the entire Brexit process.
"We don't leave a gang of thieves according to the rules of the thieves, we just leave, and we leave by repealing that and then selective repealing whatever other legislation, or tweaking it, as we needed to. Had we done that we'd have been out of the EU three years ago and now not facing, tomorrow, the fourth anniversary of the referendum. So my own views are totally clear: We have to just walk away," he opined.
Vachha has taken the helm of a party that has seen a sequence of leaders following the 2016 referendum, having at times been marked by internal division and the collapse of its vote in elections to the European Parliament last year. He delivered his inaugural speech in front of the statue of Winston Churchill in London's Parliament Square, stating that UKIP was back in business as a "proper mainstream political party."
Addressing members of the press, Vachha said it was "time now for UKIP to get back to business" and promised the party was to "return to our libertarian, freedom-loving principles � and under my leadership that is what we will get."
"Those blaggards in Westminster need to watch out because I take no prisoners. They've sinned for too long. I hold them personally, individually and collectively responsible for the nonsense that has occurred in this country... for at least the last six governments," he added.
