Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage says his own country "stabbed [New Zealand] in the back" when it joined the European Economic Community in the 1970s.
"Despite everything New Zealand had done to help us, support us - at massive cost to yourselves - we stabbed you in the back because we signed up for the globalist order," the Brexit campaigner told Newshub Nation.
"Brexit, which I was involved with, was the first real kickback against this move towards decisions being made at a high level, and now that revolution is rolling out across the whole world."
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The European Economic Community was the forerunner of the modern-day European Union, which the UK sensationally narrowly voted to quit in 2016.
"Our leaders chose to go in a European direction and turn our backs on you guys - frankly, our own kith and kin, our own real friends around the world. That was an historical mistake this country made. Brexit is the opportunity to correct that mistake and to get us back on a better basis."
Mr Farage is coming to New Zealand in September, when he'll be speaking at SkyCity in front of a paying audience. He wants Kiwis to learn from what the UK "got so badly wrong".
"We were lulled by big global businesses into surrendering our sovereignty, into forgetting the very basis of a nation state democracy is to put ourselves first. Learn from us and don't make those mistakes."
There have been massive protests against Brexit in recent months, with reports the vote was interfered with by foreign actors and confusion over the drawn-out negotiations. Mr Farage dismissed anti-Brexit campaigners as "upper middle class, very comfortably off, many on trust funds, none of them actually living in the real world", with names like "Lucilla" and "Hugo".
"We had 1.5 million marching against the Iraq War. We had nearly half a million marching against banning fox hunting. We've seen many demonstrations before. That doesn't prove a blooming thing."
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He says he'll jump straight back into politics if there's any sign Brexit won't happen.
"We're not against the Europeans, but our real friends in the world speak our language, have common law, shared histories, traditions - as a joke, I used to say even play cricket as well."
Newshub.
