John Major’s Brexit intervention

In a long interview with Sir John Major on BBC Radio 4, Amol Rajan covered a whole host of issues with the former PM. But the one that interested me most was his analysis of Brexit.

Now, I have to be clear here: I think that Sir John bears a very heavy responsibility for Brexit. If he had stood up to the “bastards”, the “closest racists and swivel-eyed loons” in his own cabinet in the 1990s, it would never have happened.

But he is at least one of the few, very few voices of common sense in the Tory party these days. He speaks well about the ridiculous situation where his party calls judges the “enemies of the people” or insults people who voted to stay in the EU as “remoaners”.

He calls the Rwandan scheme un-British and un-Christian, and on Brexit he says “Brexit is the most divisive thing that has happened in the Tory Party in my lifetime”. But then (and this speaks well of the man) he says that is far less important than what it has done to the country. If only a few more current Tory leaders could think like that.

His analysis of what has really happened since Brexit is clear and accurate. For a start, as he says, “I don’t believe it has done anything good. It has made our country weaker and poorer”. He also explains why membership of the EU was a force multiplier for the UK: “The EU was a megaphone to amplify our power in the world – instead we are isolated and outside”.

And as for the claim that the problem is that Brexit was just implemented badly, he is derisive: “What has happened to all the benefits of Brexit we heard about?” As he puts it, no one said there might be some benefits in 10 or 20 years’ time. “It was going to be milk and honey straight away and it wasn’t milk and honey. Brexit was sold to the nation on the basis of things that haven’t happened and couldn’t have happened”.

And in his calm and measured way he calls out the liars in his own party and elsewhere. “There was a great degree of misapplication of reality”. Do you mean lies, he was asked? “That is another way of putting it”.

The former premier is obviously also amazed that no one can see the reality of what has happened. “The practical effect is that we are poorer, that means taxes are higher, spending on public services is lower. That is actually what it means and that has happened because of the false promises of Brexit.”

And as for those claims that we have somehow regained sovereignty, “People said we were going to get our sovereignty back. Well, up to a point. We now have sovereignty to be poorer: we have sovereignty to be less influential.”

He is also clear that the way back is going to be a long and difficult journey. Re-joining the single market or the customs union right now is just not practical, he says, but “I think it will happen. The young population voted overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union. When in ten years’ time, when they are in parliament and running the country, it may be possible to get back. But the Brexiteers made a good job of making it difficult. Because we not only insulted our neighbours, but we have also lost all the special advantages we had”. This includes the rebates and opt-outs from the social chapter and the euro. If we go back into the EU, we are very unlikely to get any of those exemptions again.

The great tragedy is that Brexit was delivered by the ultras who destroyed all the bridges and burnt all the boats, deliberately as a conscious act of self-harm to make reversing Brexit vastly more difficult.

Sir John is not in a forgiving mood. “The Brexiteers now say ‘Oh well get over it, it’s all gone’. If my house had been burgled, I would be pretty fed up if the burglar said, ‘It’s all over now, forget about it”.

But unfortunately, that is exactly what we are being told and not just by the Tory Party. That means the road back looks very long and rocky, and we are still going in totally the wrong direction.