Nigel Farage meets Donald Trump to badmouth Britain after squirming through Epstein questions

Nigel Farage will meet with Donald Trump this afternoon, he reluctantly admitted during a Congressional hearing in Washington.

And he squirmed as he was repeatedly asked questions about the Epstein Files - which a Congressman said might be "awkward for your lunch" with the US President.

The Reform leader had told the committee he would have to leave as he had "other things to do" this afternoon. Congressman Jared Moskowitz asked Mr Farage what he was going to do - and whether he would be meeting the President.

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Farage initially tried to be coy, saying "I can't remember the schedule". But he eventually accepted that he would be meeting with Trump later today.

Despite this he said "who says I'm meeting him?" when asked by The Mirror if he would be badmouthing Britain. Earlier Mr Moskowitz had asked a series of awkward questions about the Epstein files, and whether he was in favour of them being published.

Farage refused to answer, saying: "I thought I'd come to a hearing on free speech."

Mr Moskowitz then brandished a copy of a news article, in which Farage had called for the files to be published.

"Do you agree with yourself?" He said. "Is it awkward for your lunch after this?"

Earlier in the session, Farage was branded a 'far-right politician", who leads a "fringe party."

Democrat ranking member Jamie Raskin also said he was a "Putin-loving free speech imposter" and a "Trump sycophant".

He said: "Mr Farage seems most at home with the autocrats and dictators of the world."

"To the people of the UK who think this Putin loving free speech imposter will protect free speech, come over to America and see what Donald Trump is doing in this country," Mr Raskin said, ahead of Farage's evidence.

"You might think twice before you let Mr Farage make Britain great again."

Farage said he wanted to bring Lucy Connolly to Washington DC as "living proof of what can go wrong" with free speech.

The Reform UK leader, in his evidence to the US House Judiciary Committee, raised the arrest of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan for his comments on social media about trans people, and the jailing of Connolly for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers in the aftermath of the Southport murders last year.

"It doesn't give me any great joy to be sitting in America and describing the really awful authoritarian situation that we have now sunk into," Mr Farage said.

Of Connolly's social media post that lead to her guilty plea and imprisonment, he said: "It was intemperate, it was wrong, but she removed it three-and-a-half hours later. Sentenced to 31 months in prison. She's now out, having served 40% of the time.

"I wanted to bring her with me today as living proof of what can go wrong.

"Sadly, the restrictions that have been put on her banned her from making the trip, which is a very, very great shame."