Why would anyone reelect him to this role?’ wonders liberal MEP.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage | Leon Neal/Getty Images
European Parliament liberal group leader Guy Verhofstadt had a pop at his longtime rival Nigel Farage on Monday, saying the Brit's MEP salary was "the biggest waste of EU resources."
Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium, said on Twitter: "Nigel Farage has been an elected MEP since 1999, but now says he comes out of 'semi–retirement.' As I already warned in 2012, the biggest waste of EU resources is Nigel Farage's salary. Why would anyone reelect him to this role?"
Verhofstadt attached a video from the Parliament chamber from 2012 in which he said: "You know, colleagues, what I think is the biggest waste of money in the European Union of today is the salary we all pay to Mr. Farage."
He added, to applause from MEPs: "Let's be honest about it. You are a member of the fisheries committee, for example, and you're never there. Never. In 2011, no attendance."
"You are cheating your own citizens here. All the time."
Verhofstadt may have thought he was getting rid of Farage thanks to Brexit, but with the U.K. all but certain to be taking part in May's EU election, that appears not to be the case.
Farage launched his new Brexit Party earlier in April, saying: "I do believe that we can win these European elections and that we can again start to put the fear of God into our members of parliament in Westminster — they deserve nothing less than that after the way they have treated us."
According to POLITICO's election polling, the Brexit Party is on course to win 13 seats, coming in second in Britain behind Labour.
https://www.politico.eu/article/guy-verhofstadt-the-biggest-waste-of-eu-resources-is-nigel-farage-salary/