British politician to hit at EU ties

LONDON — Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage announced Saturday that he was returning to political campaigning in a bid to derail British Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for future ties with the European Union.

Farage, who helped lead the successful campaign in 2016 on leaving the EU, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he would join a cross-country bus tour by the group Leave Means Leave to oppose May’s “cowardly sell-out.”

Referring to U.K. politicians and civil servants, he said that “unless challenged, these anti-democrats will succeed in frustrating the result” of the 2016 referendum.

Negotiations on future relations between the U.K. and the bloc have faltered, largely due to divisions within May’s Conservative government over how close an economic relationship to seek.

Last month the government finally produced a plan, proposing to stick close to EU regulations in return for free trade in goods. That infuriated exit-backers such as Farage and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who say it would leave the U.K. tethered to the bloc.

Opponents of the exit say that, even if the EU accepts May’s plan it would still erect barriers between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner.

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