Nigel Farage insisted the UK “is never coming back” as he and his fellow Brexit Party MEPs were rebuked for waving Union Jack flags around during his final speech at the European Parliament.
Mr Farage and his allies had earlier jeered European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during the session in Brussels.
Later Brexit Party MEPs gave Mr Farage three cheers as he said “that’s it, we’re out” after being told not to disobey rules and to "get rid of" the flags.
In his speech, Mr Farage appeared to address Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt’s prediction the UK would eventually rejoin the EU by telling the session “we’re never coming back”.
He said: “This is it, the final chapter, the end of the road, a 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with,” he said.
“I’m not particularly happy with the agreement we’re being asked to vote on tonight but Boris has been remarkably bold in the last few months and, Ms Von Der Leyen, he’s promised us there will be no level playing field and on that basis I wish him every success in the next round of negotiations.
“What happens at 11pm this Friday, January 31, 2020, marks the point of no return, once we’ve left we are never coming back and the rest, frankly, is detail.
“We are going, we will be gone and that should be the summit of my own political ambitions.”
He continued to say that the UK had shown it was “too big to bully” by sticking to the result of the Brexit referendum.
“I want Brexit to start a debate across the rest of Europe,” he said.
“I’m hoping this begins the end of this project. It’s a bad project, it isn’t just undemocratic it’s anti-democratic.”
Mr Farage added: “There is a historic battle going on now across the West – in Europe, America and elsewhere.
“It is globalism against populism. And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing – it’s becoming very popular.
“And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Court of Justice, no more common fisheries policy, no more being talked down to, no more being bullied, no more Guy Verhofstadt.”
As she bid farewell to UK MEPs, Ms Von Der Leyen said “we will always love you and we will never be far.”
“No new partnership will bring back the benefits of being part of the same union but we have the duty to seek the best for the British and for the European people in a post-Brexit world,” she said.
“To our British friends and many – perhaps not all – but many of our British MEPs here in the room, I want to use the words of the famous British poet George Eliot.
“She said, ‘Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depth of love’.
“We will always love you and we will never be far, long live Europe.”
