Nigel Farage has rubbished claims by the Prime Minister that closer ties to the EU would help us control immigration.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “He’s stuck with a completely outdated vision of what the European Union actually is.

“Would it help us deal with immigration? Would it hell.

“The so-called Dublin Agreement that we had before meant some years we had to actually receive more people from Europe than we sent back.

“We have total control over immigration. We can do what we like.

“The fact Tory and Labour governments have chosen not to use those powers is down to us, not because we’ve left the European Union.

“And on the economy, this annoys me: is trade with Europe, with physical goods, slightly more inconvenient than it was before? Yes, that’s true, it is.

“But by the same token, we’ve signed up to 70 new agreements around the rest of the world.

“But it hasn’t damaged business overall. In fact, unbelievably, our exports of services to the European Union are up over 25% since we left.

“So the arguments annoy me. They’re wrong. They’re out of date.

“Quite why the Prime Minister wants to sit down with Marine Le Pen and the AfD, I do not know. But this debate that he started won’t unify the country.”