Making Nigel Farage the UK’s ambassador to America is a ‘great idea’ says former deputy PM Nick Clegg
The Lib Dem EU spokesperson also said we were living in "perilous times" and leaders were not in touch with the people
NICK CLEGG has said that Nigel Farage becoming the UK's ambassador to the US is an "absolutely great idea".
The former Deputy Prime Minister told CNN this morning that he was on board with the idea of the interim Ukip leader playing the role on the world stage.
The Liberal Democrat EU spokesperson said : “I think it’s a great idea – absolutely great idea.
"Send Nigel Farage to Washington and let him spend all his time in cocktail parties on the diplomatic circuit. That would be great, as far as I’m concerned.”
Last night Mr Farage posed with posh chocolates at a fancy party at the Ritz to celebrate his role in Brexit.
Earlier this week the President-Elect suggested in a tweet that Mr Farage should take on the role of the UK's ambassador to America.
The Ukip leader said that he was "very flattered" but No 10 insisted that the position was not vacant and he was an "irrelevance".
That was just a week after Mr Farage flew out to the States to meet personally with Mr Trump and some of his team in Trump Towers.
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Mr Clegg also told CNN that we were living in "very perilous times indeed" and that the "era of populism and politics of grievance" was beginning.
"If things are mishandled, if people do crazy and bad things it could be very, very bad for future generations," he added.
"These people are not in touch with the folk they claim they’re representing – they are elitist themselves, and that is the interesting thing. Donald Trump is hardly a ‘man of the people’. He resides in a gold-plated tower in Manhattan."
But he urged people to take politicians such as the right-wing leader Marine Le Pen seriously.
" They get away with saying a whole bunch of extreme things and then they’re not held to account," he claimed. "It’s exactly the same thing as here – the Brexiteers, who advocated this great utopia, are not being held to account to the fact that clearly that utopia is not going to suddenly arrive in the United Kingdom.
"I think we need to somehow find a way to holding populists to account in a way that conventional politicians traditionally are."
It was revealed this morning that Mr Clegg has had private talks with the former Prime Minister Tony Blair ahead of his potential return to mainstream politics.
Mr Clegg met with Mr Blair earlier this month, but Tim Farron, the current Lib Dem leader, rejected the offer of talks with the former PM.
Mr Blair said this morning in an interview with the New Statesman that he could not return to frontline politics as he faced too much hostility, but wanted to play a role in shaping the debate for progressive, Western politics in future.