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NIGEL FARAGE: 'I don't want to be Prime Minister' and Leave's '£350 million' ad campaign was a 'mistake'

Jun 24, 2016, 11:53 IST

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty

UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage has said he doesn't want to be the "Brexit Prime Minister."

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Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain shortly after the UK public voted to leave the European Union, Farage said he didn't know which Conservative politician he would like to step up, either.

It is widely thought that Prime Minister David Cameron, who was a supporter of the Remain campaign, will resign if Brexit was the winning vote in the polls.

Farage said David Cameron "has to go" and that the UK needs a "Brexit Prime Minister."

He added: "No, I don't want to be Prime Minister, I want to get Britain out of the EU - that's why I helped form UKIP. If I wanted to be Prime Minister, I wouldn't go down that route."

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The UKIP leader said he is keen for the Conservative Party to draw up a negotiating team, including Tory politicians Peter Davies, John Redwood, and Peter Lilley.

He said people waking up to the results this morning will find out the UK is being back to being a "normal country in charge of our own laws," able to make its own deals, and "maybe even re-engaging the Commonwealth."

"£350 million" ad was a ''mistake"

Farage bashed the Remain campaign as "scaremongering."

"All I've ever tried to do is tell the truth as I see it ... to get us back to being a self-covering nation. I have been demonized every single week because I've dared to talk about immigration," Farage said.

Boris Johnson on the campaign trail for the Vote Leave group.REUTERS/Darren Staples

Farage was then challenged by Good Morning Britain Susanna Reid about Vote Leave's bus campaign which suggested Britain spends £350 million a week to Brussels that could be better-spent on the NHS. The figure was widely-contested because it doesn't include the rebate Britain also receives.

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Reid asked whether Farage could now guarantee that £350 million would be returned to the National Health Service.

Farage said he couldn't.

"I would never have made that claim, it's one of the mistakes the Leave campaign made and would be a guarantee I can never make," Farage said.

Reid and co-presenter Piers Morgan than challenged again that some people may have voted for Leave on the back of a misleading ad.

Farage said: "What I can tell you is we have a £10 billion pound a year, £34 million feather bed that is going to be free money we can spend on the NHS, schools, whatever it is."

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Farage on Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guest gathered at Fountain Park during a campaign rally on March 19, 2016 in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Trumps visit to Arizona is the second time in three months as he looks to gain the GOP nomination for President.Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Donald Trump comes to the UK today to visit Scotland. Morgan remarked that some people have made comparisons between Farage and Trump.

Farage said: "Well I have been compared to many things over the years, but not Donald Trump, it's a bit early in the day for that sort of thing."

He added that "there is something that is happening in American politics that is perhaps a mirror of what's happening here" - a feeling that Washington is too remote from the rest of the country.

"I don't agree with everything he says, but he must have a chance of winning," Farage said.

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