Good Morning Britain returned to ITV this morning with the first instalment of the week, hosted by Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins.
Joining them on a live link from Westminster was Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage MEP to discuss the UK’s European Election result which saw his party gain one third of the votes, becoming the clear winner.
However, during the conversation, Farage got riled up very quickly and snapped at presenter Hawkins when she tried to present him with the fact that the anti-Brexit parties were more successful collectively on a percentage basis, compared to the two parties in favour of leaving the EU without a deal, as opposition Anna Soubry MP had stated.
“We [anti-Brexit parties] actually won 40 percent of the vote and UKIP and the Brexit Party won 34 per cent,” Soubry previously told the programme.
Hawkins brought Soubry’s comment up to Farage and his response was: “Well our party were formed at the same time. Compare the results, who are the victors last night? It was the Brexit Party.
“Although,” Hawkins interjected. “What I want to say, they [Change UK] did gain a bigger percentage.”
“No, no,” Farage exclaimed and could be seen shaking his head in disagreement, but Hawkins continued to explain: “If you add up all the pro-remain parties, they did gain a bigger percentage, 35.8 per cent versus the Brexit Party 31.6 per cent. So actually pro-remain parties altogether did win a bigger percentage.”
“No, I’m sorry, this is absolute tosh!” Farage exclaimed. “If you want to look at it that way -“
But Hawkins cut him off: “It’s the facts!” Leaving Farage to sternly reply: “Well it’s not a fact alright? Add up the Brexit Party vote, add up the UKIP vote -“
Hawkins did just that as viewers heard her say: “31.6 per cent.”
“Let me finish,” Farage demanded and continued: “Add up the UKIP vote, add to that the Conservative vote who are still a party who says we’re going to leave, and you will find Leave beat Remain. In fact what you will find, overall is that right now the country is 52 – 48 in favour of leaving!
“We’re supposed to be a democracy, we were promised it would be implemented and I’m really tired or all these Remainers constantly moaning about every single election which they lose.”
Overall, out of 64 MEP’s declared so far, the Brexit Party has won 28 despite only being up and running for six weeks.
The Lib Dems won 15, Labour 10, Greens seven, The Conservatives three and Plaid Cymru one.
Discussing the result in general, Farage said “this is one hell of an achievement” for his party.
Meanwhile, President of the Liberal Democrats Baroness Briton spoke about their success and told Good Morning Britain: “That’s the best result we’ve had in the EU elections.”
As for the Greens response, leader of the party Jonathan Bartley said their win was down to more young people are becoming concerned about the state of the environment.
It was a bad night for the Tories and the Labour Party who saw a crushing defeat.
Labour MP Richard Burgon said it was a very ‘disappointing’ night for Labour, however he argued the EU elections aren’t a fair reflection of how UK voters are feeling.
Good Morning Britain airs weekday mornings at 6am on ITV.
