Brexit: Irish border has been used to trap Theresa May, says Nigel Farage

During a visit to Christchurch, Dorset, Mr Farage said he believed the “establishment” had been attempting to water down Brexit, but he felt that there had been a shift in the past 24 hours.

He said: “Every leading exponent on both Remain side and Leave side say: ‘If you vote to leave, you are leaving the union, you are leaving the customs union, you are leaving the single market.’ It could not be clearer.

“And what we have had is an over two-year attempt by the establishment to water it down, delay it, in some cases even to stop it, but I do begin to think in the last 24 hours maybe the establishment have hit the wall.

“I want Brexit. If you think there should be a border, a hard border (in Ireland), let’s work it out, shall we?

“There’s a different currency between the north and the south, different income tax rates, different excise rates, different corporation tax rates - if you need to have a hard border because of differences, there should be one there today.

“If we have a simple free trade deal with the European Union that would be a non-issue because there would be no excise duties to collect.

“On the argument of different specifications of products, hey, at the moment we have exactly the same specs as Northern Ireland.

“You could say in five or 10 years’ time, there might be one or two industries where we have some differences, but if you buy a washing machine now you can track on your mobile phone exactly where it is.

“We are not at the days... Southampton is just down the road, every day there are tens of thousands of containers that come in from China, we do not open them and check them, they are logged and registered and the excise duty is paid.

“The truth of the Northern Ireland border, the real truth is, it is being used very cleverly by Monsieur Barnier to trap Theresa May in a position.

“You see, the one thing Europe don’t want is us to leave the single market rules and become competitive.”

When asked if he still considered a “hard Brexit” as the best way forward, he said: “What is hard Brexit? Would you explain what it is?

“I had never heard of it until we won the referendum and then it was invented by the other side. Hard Brexit bad, soft Brexit lovely and cuddly.

“What they meant by soft Brexit was not leaving, it was Brexit in name only.

“That’s the path the prime minister has been determined to pursue but I think she is beginning to realise out in the country and increasingly on her own back benches, they won’t put up with it.”