Farage raises a pint for Brexit from 'crumbling' EU

Leading Brexit supporter Nigel Farage celebrated the start of Britain's departure from the EU today with a pint in a pub near parliament, saying it was a vindication for him after long years of campaigning.
Wearing Union Jack socks, the 52-year-old Farage sat outside the Marquis of Granby pub after Prime Minister Theresa May made the historic announcement.
"Today's the day for me after 25 years of campaigning that the impossible dream came true," he told SkyNews.
Farage, a member of the European Parliament, is the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) whose rise pushed then prime minister David Cameron into calling an EU membership referendum in 2013.

He said that advocating Britain's departure from the EU was "a minority sport" for many years.
"We were laughed at, abused.. And hey here we are," said Farage, a former commodities trader who resigned as UKIP leader following last year's Brexit referendum, saying he had achieved his lifelong dream.

Farage co-funded UKIP in 1993 and raised the party's profile. In Britain's last general election in 2015, the party got four million votes and it won European Parliament elections in 2014.
But despite the party's political successes and repeated attempts, Farage was never elected to parliament.
Following the resignation of UKIP's only MP over the weekend, it now has no representation in the legislature. There are now questions over the party's future because of months of bitter infighting.

Farage has said he will continue to monitor the British government's progress in negotiations but will not return to a frontline political role.
Apart from negotiating with Brussels, he said today that Britain should also set out its case to major exporters in France and Germany "to get them to put pressure on their own politicians".
"There may be politicians in Europe who are prepared to sacrifice their own workers' interests to keep this crumbling union together," he said.
"I want us to have a have a sensible free trade deal," he said, holding a copy of the europhobic Daily Express newspaper which carried a front page headline reading: "Dear EU, We're Leaving You".