European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has admitted that Britain has never felt “at home in the EU” while a poll has put Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in first place ahead of the European Parliament elections.
Mr Juncker lamented Thursday that the British “political elite” are not “passionate about Europe,” telling Hungarian media on Thursday in comments reported by POLITICO, “Over decades of meeting British politicians, my impression has always been that they don’t feel at home in the EU.”
He also complained that “for decades” British politicians had told Britons that the bloc was “about economic interests, not values” — while Brussels has been moving towards greater integration and federalisation underpinned by progressive, globalist “European values” — saying that MPs’ focus on economic interests instead of on inducing the British to love the European superstate resulted in the country’s decision to vote for Brexit.
The acknowledgement that the United Kingdom has always set itself apart from European politics comes as another poll puts the Brexit Party several points in the lead of the establishment parties ahead of European Parliament polls on May 23rd.
A YouGov poll published Thursday revealed the Nigel Farage-led party has 30 per cent of voters’ intention, nine points ahead of Labour at 21 per cent and more than double that of the Tory Party at just 13 per cent.
52 per cent of people who voted Conservative in the 2017 General Election back the Brexit Party as well as 60 per cent of people who voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.
News that criminal MP Fiona Onasanya was ousted by her constituents in a recall petition on Wednesday has also triggered a by-election in Brexit-supporting Peterborough, a seat which Mr Farage said the Brexit Party would be challenging for.
However, the party leader confirmed to The Sun that he would not be running as the Peterborough candidate himself, saying it would be “impossible — I have a national campaign to run!”
The Tories have been falling in the polls ahead of the European Parliament election as a result of Prime Minister Theresa May failing to deliver Brexit on time on March 29th, delaying the country’s exit until October 31st. Consequently, the British have been pulled into the EU-wide poll nearly three years after they voted to leave the bloc.
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