Britons ‘should grab their chance’ says leading Kiwi
BRITAIN could have a “truly exciting future” by quitting the EU and rebuilding trade links with the Commonwealth, a senior New Zealand politician said yesterday.
Winston Peters, a former deputy prime minister of his country, said British voters had a historic chance to correct the “mistake” of tying up with Brussels.
“The Commonwealth could be a colossus,” Mr Peters said. “It has a diversity of markets the EU could only dream of.”
The veteran Kiwi politician was in London yesterday to give his backing to the “leave” campaign for the EU referendum on June 23.
In a speech to the House of Lords, he said the Commonwealth was “now a dynamic powerhouse, crossing every time zone and every trading session in the world” in contrast to the failing EU. He claimed that, unlike the top-down control of the EU, the Commonwealth represented a free association of nations based on friendship and trade links.
Mr Peters, 71, added: “Anyone who thinks the economy of a nation that once led the largest empire in history will be suddenly laid to ruin upon leaving the EU is greatly mistaken.”
He said: “The world is a far bigger place than the 28 EU member states. Britain forgot that once.
“Some of us believe you won’t make that same mistake again.”