Mr Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, was in Britain on Friday to campaign for Vince Cable’s Liberal Democrats in the forthcoming European elections. An Opinium poll of 2,004 UK adults over 18 years old between May 8 and 10 published today on voting intentions for the European Parliamentary elections put the Brexit Party on 34 per cent, with Labour 21 per cent and the Tories in fourth place with 11 per cent. Separately, a ComRes survey of 2,034 GB adults carried out online on May 9 of voting intentions for the general election put the Brexit Party on 21 per cent to the Conservatives' 20, which would see Farage's team win 49 seats, becoming the UK's second biggest party after Labour, with 137.
He would rather sign in & go to the pub than fight for British interests in Europe
Guy Verhofstadt
In response to the news, the former Belgian Prime Minister tweeted: “Farage is a long sitting, career MEP in Brussels, with one of the lowest attendance rates.
“He would rather sign in & go to the pub than fight for British interests in Europe.
“Sending him back would be insane!”
Speaking during his visit to the UK, Mr Verhofstadt, 66, who days earlier said he did not know whether Brexit would happen at all, said the poll was a chance to send a message to the continent.
Mr Verhofstadt said Mr Farage would "rather go to the pub" (Image: GETTY)
A fly-on-the-wall documentary screened last week showed Mr Verhofstadt's senior aides shouting “oh **** off” at a television screen which was showing Mrs May’s speech
