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Nigel Farage makes misleading claims about Brexit divorce bill

Farage proudly holds up the incorrect statement
Farage proudly holds up the incorrect statement

Nigel Farage and his radio station LBC have been forced into an embarrassing climbdown after the former UKIP leader made misleading claims about Britain’s financial obligations to the EU on his show.

As British and EU negotiators clash over the size of the Brexit bill, Farage took to the airwaves to claim that, actually, the UK has no future obligations.

He said: “You could say, morally, that we have signed up to a series of spending agreements that take us through a little bit past the date we’re going to leave.

“But beyond that, do we have any legal obligation?

“Well, in Article 50 it makes clear that ‘the rights and obligations deriving from the Treaties would therefore extinguish upon our leaving’. It’s very clear there are no future obligations.”

MORE: Brexit talks hit deadlock over ‘fundamental differences’

Mr. Brexit held up a piece of paper with what he claimed was the direct quote from Article 50 and later tweeted out a picture.

But Farage was forced to delete the tweet after users pointed out that Article 50 actually says nothing of the sort.

Farage then replaced the deleted tweet with another, but again users were quick to point out its issues.

LBC then clarified that Farage had in fact been quoting a briefing note sent to MEPs in February 2016 to help explain Article 50.

The briefing note contains a rather clear disclaimer, which reads: “The content of this document is the sole responsibility of the author and any opinions expressed therein do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament.”

Unsurprisingly, the EU doesn’t share that interpretation of Article 50. Not that Farage has ever shown much care for what the European Union thinks.