A Remainer former Tory MEP has said he is pleased the Brexit debate has returned to the British mainstream.
Speaking to GB News, Dr Charles Tannock claimed that £verything I predicted came true” about the consequences of the UK leaving the EU.
Questions of Britain’s future with the bloc have resurfaced after Labour leadership contender Wes Streeting backed rejoining during the speech announcing his intention to stand for the top job.
“I never embraced Brexit; I always thought it was a mistake,” Dr Tannock began.
“It would cost the economy; it wouldn't reduce migration; it wouldn't secure our future in terms of trade relations with Europe or the rest of the world,” he said.
“None of these have been delivered a decade after the referendum. So we are where we are.
“The Overton Window has shifted, and the Brexit debate is open and back on the table,” he declared.
To that end, the former Tory MEP admitted he harboured some satisfaction with the “failures” he saw in Brexit.
Dr Charles Tannock has said he feels a sense of satisfaction over what he deemed Brexit 'mistakes'
|GB NEWS
“I get a little bit of what's called schadenfreude, to use the German expression, that everything I predicted, I'm afraid, has come true.
“None of the promises made of the sunlit uplands of Brexit have come true.
“From globally free trading to great prosperity in terms of growth in our economy, cheaper food, medicines and reduced immigration.”
GB News host Martin Daubney interjected, suggesting Brexit’s apparent failures were a result of mishandling by successive governments.
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'The Overton Window has shifted, and the Brexit debate is open and back on the table,' the former Tory MEP said
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However, Dr Tannock was not convinced.
“It reminds me of the communists who said that socialism was never done properly in Russia, in the Eastern Bloc.
“As far as I'm concerned, the Brexit mandate has been fully discharged.
“The UK left the single market. It left the European Union Customs Union. It's had a hard Brexit,” he said.
“The political class never listened to the working class, and you're still banging the same old drum,” Martin shot back.
“This country voted to leave. You don’t like it? Tough. It happened.”
“I simply say that if Brexit were as successful as you make it out to be, there wouldn't be a debate to be had,” Dr Tannock responded,
“None of those promises from Brexit have come to pass a decade after the referendum… We have to rethink the matter,” the former Tory MEP insisted.