Nigel Farage 'owned' by Guy Verhofstadt in stinging tweet after Thames fish protest

Guy Verhofstadt has lashed out at Nigel Farage on Twitter over his river Thames fishing stunt.

The Brexit Coordinator for the European Parliament told Mr Farage that he “should have done his job as a member of the fisheries committee in the European Parliament.”

He then added a video which originated from 2012 in which he accused Nigel Farage of not attending any meetings of the EU fisheries committee.

It comes after Mr Farage was part of a protest on the Thames on Wednesday.

He joined fishermen in throwing a box of haddock into the river in protest after the UK agreed to remain subject to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy during the 21-month transition period after Britain leaves the bloc next March.

Jacob Rees-Mogg was also supposed to join the protest however he was blocked from boarding the trawler at Embankment and Westminster piers because of a licensing problem.

In the video Mr Verhofstadt published to Twitter, he can be heard saying:

“You know colleagues, what I think is the biggest waste of money in the European Union is the salary we all pay to Mr Farage.

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. In 2012, no attendance.

“You pay yourself a salary without doing any labour in your own committee.”

One person wrote online: "Think that's called owned" in response to Mr Verhofstadt's tweet.

Mr Farage attended only one of the 42 meetings held by the EU’s fisheries committee during the three years he sat on it.

Fishing for Leave, the campaign group which organised the protest, say fish must be discarded after being caught due to EU quota rules.

Theresa May has been told by 14 of her parliamentary allies that she must use this week's European Council to insist that the UK will set its own fisheries policy from the date of Brexit in March 2019 rather than from the end of the implementation period.