Nigel Farage rages Brussels has 'got even worse' since Brexit as huge row erupts

By Katie Harris, Political Reporter

Nigel Farage hits out at Brussels in row over Tory conference

Nigel Farage lashed out at Brussels in a row over a major conservative conference.

The National Conservative Conference, where speakers include the former Ukip leader, kicked off in Brussels today after two venues pulled out of hosting the event.

Mr Farage said Brussels, the de facto capital of the EU, "appears to have got even worse" since Brexit and that cancel culture is "alive and well".

In a video posted on social media platform X, he said: "On my way back to Brussels, it's my first public visit there for four years since the day I left on the eve of us leaving the EU.

"I'm going to the NatCon conference this is run by the Edmund Burke Society, an American organisation.

"Lots of prominent European figures attending ahead of course of an important set of European elections in June of this year including Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary.

"Would you believe that Brussels appears to have got even worse in the four years since I've been there.

"We've now had not one but two venues cancel us holding this conference. Apparently the socialist mayor of Brussels doesn't think this meeting should take place. Antifa and other organisations threatening to protest.

"I mean talk about cancel culture, these are political parties that are going to come top of the poll in at least nine European countries when we get the results through on June 10 of this year. So on my way back to the ghastly Brussels, cancel culture alive and well."

The Brussels Times reported that a second venue in the city in Belgium pulled out of hosting the event after an intervention by Mayor of Etterbeek Vincent de Wolf.

Speakers at the conference including former home secretary Suella Braverman, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Tory MP Miriam Cates.

It comes ahead of the European Parliament elections in June which are expected to see a shift to the right in many countries.