Nigel Farage taunts EU Parliament: 'You're not laughing now'

Nigel Farage told fellow MEPs “you’re not laughing now”, as he was barracked and booed at an emergency meeting of the European Parliament to discuss Brexit.

The Ukip leader accused them of being “in denial” about the Euro crisis, immigration, and the imposition “by stealth, by deception, without ever telling the truth”, of a political union.

Offering a tongue-in-cheek “thank you for the warm welcome”, he told them: “When I came here, 17 years ago, and said I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?”

As the session was disrupted by constant shouts of dissent, Parliament president Martin Schulz intervened, warning members that “one major quality of democracy is that you listen to those, even if you don’t share their opinion”.

At a highly charged session in the Brussels chamber, Mr Farage said: “The reason you are so upset, the reason you are so angry, has been perfectly clear from all the angry exchanges this morning: you are in denial. You are in denial that your currency is failing,” he said.

Facing down more boos, he said: “As a policy to impose poverty on Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean, you have done very well. You are in denial over [German chancellor] Mrs Merkel’s call, last year, for as many people as possible to cross the Mediterranean into the European Union, which has led to massive divisions between countries and within countries.

“But the biggest problem... is that you have, by stealth, by deception, without ever telling the truth to the British or the rest of the peoples of Europe, you have imposed upon them a political union.”