Brexit leader Farage has 'lessons' for Trump, GOP

BRUSSELS — Brexit advocate Nigel Farage will attend next week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, saying the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union holds lessons for America.

"Having criticized President Obama for getting involved in British politics, I am not about to endorse anybody," Farage told USA TODAY on Tuesday. "But I do know a lot of people in the Republican Party, and I'll be interested to hear what Donald Trump has to say in his big speech."

Farage, former leader of Britain's right-wing U.K. Independence Party, said he will attend the GOP convention as an observer. He did not elaborate on what lessons the British referendum held for America and did not say who invited him to the convention.

"It was not Trump," he said outside his office here in the European Parliament.

Obama drew criticism when he commented about the United Kingdom's referendum in April during a trip to London, warning that the nation would find itself at the "back of the queue" for a trade deal with the United States if it left the European Union. The 28 nations in the EU have an alliance-wide, tariff-free trade arrangement that enables them to reach the bloc's 500 million citizens.

David Cameron chairs last cabinet meeting as PM

The U.K.'s part in the pact, along with many other aspects of its membership such as the right to live and work in other EU nations, is now threatened.

"It was counterproductive," Farage said Tuesday of Obama's intervention. "In fact, staying inside the EU would be profoundly damaging for the U.S.-U.K. relationship because as the EU develops more and more foreign policy, it reduces the U.K.'s ability to independently make decisions and continue to be America's closest ally through NATO and everything else."

Farage stepped down as his party's leader after the U.K. voted to leave the EU in the June 23 referendum, saying he had achieved his political ambitions.

He said he was disappointed that the Conservative Party chose Theresa May as prime minister, since she opposed Brexit, the British exit from the EU. Farage said he now will watch carefully to see who she appoints to lead the exit negotiations, which could take up to two years.

May formally becomes the U.K.'s second female prime minister on Wednesday. Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first woman prime minister, serving from 1979 to 1990.

Britain's next prime minister, Theresa May, heading to 10 Downing St.

Farage said he had some ideas about who May should choose to head up the Brexit negotiations with the EU.

"This needs to be led by some serious business figures," he said. "The renegotiation won't happen here in Brussels. It will happen in car manufacturing plants in Germany, during grape-picking season in Bordeaux. That's where the pressure on national governments to get on and do a sensible trade deal will come from."