Nigel Farage’s arch EU enemy is back – and wants Labour to drag us back into Europe

Bitter EU dinosaur Guy Verhofstadt has a book to flog.

You might remember him? The forgettable, lumpen former Belgian PM and EU Brexit coordinator – the bête noire of Nigel Farage – hasn’t been seen or heard of for some time.

But, predictably, he pops up on the 10th anniversary of the EU referendum to offer his sage advice.

Of course he does. After all, his tome is being flogged for £22.60 on Amazon.

Despite all that has gone before Federalist zealot Verhofstadt, 73, still thinks that some day, one day, Britain will come to its senses and run back into the arms of the EU.

A more fanatical European it would be hard to find.

In 2010 Verhofstadt co-founded ​a group to ​push for a European Federation. It was his dream – it still is – to transform the European Union into a single, sovereign superstate, similar to the United States. It wants to replace the absolute sovereignty of individual nation-states with a shared federal government, unifying critical functions like defence, foreign policy, and economic management.

It is small wonder 17.4m people stuck a collective two fingers up to that idea and voted to leave in 2016.

It was singularly thanks to Farage that we learned of his disturbing vision.

In one of many clashes inside the European Parliament he branded Verhofstadt “a fanatic and EU nationalist”, saying: “If you would think of this building as a temple Mr Verhofstadt is the high priest, a fanatic. There is only one real nationalist in this room, and it’s you.”

For Verhofstadt Brexit was the greatest affront imaginable. It was a personal sleight and grave insult for anyone – let alone a country – to want to do things differently as opposed to blindly shadowing the EU in all its decisions.

And like all fanatics, Verhofstadt still hasn’t given up on his ambition.

In his book Defeating Trumpism, which attacks US president Donald Trump, Verhofstadt claims to have defined a clear strategy to defeat populism, putting the interest and power of the ordinary citizens at the centre of the economy as well as at the heart of the political decision-making process.

And he couldn’t let the 10th anniversary of Brexit pass without offering his two penneth worth, saying: “A decade on, Brexit has not resolved Britain’s relationship with Europe. It has merely made it more complicated, more costly and more frustrating. The promises made in 2016 have not matched reality. Trade barriers have increased and Britain has found itself outside the room when decisions affecting its future are taken.

“The world has changed too. In the face of Russian aggression, economic competition from authoritarian powers, climate breakdown and rapid technological transformation, the case for European cooperation has become stronger.

“Countries acting alone cannot address these challenges effectively.

“For me, the lesson of the past 10 years is clear: Britain’s natural place is in the European Union. The EU isn’t perfect. But Britain’s interests, values, security and prosperity are fundamentally European.

“A generation of young Britons see no contradiction between being proudly British and proudly European. They understand that their future security and opportunities are bound up with the continent to which they belong.

“The responsibility now falls to them. The generation that lost its European citizenship without being asked should not resign itself to a permanent loss. Political decisions can be reversed, and the next chapter of Britain’s European story has yet to be written. Young Britons should have the ambition to write it.”

This will be music to Labour’s ears as a party, government, and country under new management seeks to take us back to the bloc.

But Verhofstadt might as well whistle in the wind.

The deeply troubling prospect of the UK being shackled to Brussels is very real under Andy Burnham and the Leftist cabal he is cobbling together.

Remember it was Verhofstadt who labelled leave voters “extremists” 10 years ago and a decade on he continues to push for full-on renewal of EU membership, telling remainers the bloc is “waiting for you”.

But he is barking up the wrong tree.

From agri-tech to AI Britain is now able to innovate and regulate – and not be forced to settle for working in lockstep with the slowest-moving EU member state.

The trouble is that Labour – egged on by Europeanists like Verhofstadt – is not confident about our strengths and has never been willing to embrace independence.