John Bercow attacked Brexit as a "grotesque blunder" as he hit out at Nigel Farage on GB News.
The former Speaker of the House of Commons took a swipe at Farage’s criticism of the Government’s handling of Brexit as he claimed leaving the EU had significantly harmed the UK's economy.
Earlier this week marked three years since the UK left the European Union.
Farage and Bercow appeared on the channel today to debate the success of the country’s departure from Brussels.
Bercow said that Farage was looking to “blame someone else” rather than admit Brexit was a failure for the UK
Nigel Farage and John Bercow shares their assessment of Brexit's impact on the UK three years on.
GB News
He said: “With Nigel, instead of taking it on the chin and recognising that, in fact, to date, it has been a grotesque blunder and the biggest foreign policy mistake in the post war period. What Nigel wants to do, because he can't abandon the religiosity of his lifelong support for Brexit, is to blame someone else.
“So it's mysterious forces. It's, if you like, a Fifth or sixth Estate, it's those Machiavellian types working night and day to frustrate the will of the British people or the designs of Farage.
“I mean, really, it is nonsense on stilts, Nigel. And to be honest, I say to you in all politeness and condor, you can do a bit better than that. Why not start by admitting first that people are poorer, wages are down, foreign direct investment has slumped, sterling has taken a permanent 10 per cent hit.
"The economy has been hit to the tune of about £100billion a year."
Farage responded: “Remember what Brexit is about. Remember, the big point of Brexit is to be a self governing, democratic nation. And that means you can get things right and you can get things wrong. Very simple. As opposed to the vast majority of our law, and certainly in commercial law, 80 per cent of it being made somewhere else over which we have little say.
“So we're in charge. We can't blame Brussels anymore. But the point is, it's never a mistake for a country to be independent, sovereign and free.
“That is never, ever a mistake. My complaint is that the party that was given the job of carrying it out didn't actually believe in it. We started off with a negotiation that was always going to give us a rubbish deal, and there's so much more we can do.
“You know, John, until last year, we were actually the fastest growing economy in the G7. Wages in the first three or four years after Brexit did go up quite appreciably.
“Now, on economics, we can argue till the cows come home about whether it's hurts us, whether it's benefited us.
“My argument is this, Brexit needed supply side reform to maximise the potential benefits. That's about us becoming more competitive than our European neighbours.
John Bercow said Nigel Farage was looking for someone to blame for the failures of Brexit.
GB News
Bercow hit back at Farage’s assessment, saying: “I listened carefully with respect to that thesis, but what I say to you is this it's one thing to excoriate Theresa May, or indeed before her David Cameron by saying, well, neither of them was a believer in Brexit, and that would be true.
“I think she did her honest, plodding, inadequate, grossly unimaginative, best, to be fair to her. But I accept that she presided over the matter in political terms with absolutely crass ineptitude.
“Where your argument seems to me to be on very difficult ground is that you can't very well lacerate Boris Alexander de Pfeffel on the same front.
“Boris Johnson came out explicitly in support of Brexit. He wanted Brexit. He favoured Brexit.
“He championed Brexit. He wanted, in fact, a Brexit, not dissimilar to that which you support.
“And so if you argue the case, Nigel, as I know you would want candidly to do, fairly and honestly, look at Brexit under BoJo, not under May, Cameron or the Secret Remainers or Remoaners. And it has been a terrible failure.”
