Fury as Labour MP compares leading Brexiteers to Nazis
A FORMER Labour minister sparked fury last night after likening leading Eurosceptic Tories to the Nazis.
David Lammy said his previous comparison of the European Research Group of Tory MPs to the regimes in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa ‘wasn’t strong enough’.
The MP, who has repeatedly called on Brexiteers to moderate their language, singled out Boris Johnson and Jacob ReesMogg. And he attacked the BBC for allowing them to air their message, saying the corporation ‘should not allow this extreme hard right fascism to flourish’.
His comments sparked an angry backlash last night, with Brexit minister James Cleverly branding them ‘stupid’, adding: ‘I would expect a more sophisticated argument than “Everyone I don’t agree with is a Nazi” from a 10-year-old.’
While civil society minister Mims Davies hit out at his ‘incendiary language and nonsensical behaviour’, adding: ‘Sowing further division costs us greatly – coming together must take precedence.’ Conservative MP Michael Fabricant, a member of the ERG, said: ‘David Lammy compares the Nazi holocaust... with the ERG which just wants to achieve Brexit? With fools like him in the Labour Party, no wonder the Party is anti-Semitic.’
Fellow Tory Conor Burns, a close ally of Mr Johnson and also an ERG member, said: ‘I used to have regard for David Lammy. But this is bats**t. Comparing the ERG to Hitler is quite something.’ While Mr ReesMogg said on Twitter ‘comparing a Parliamentary ginger group with an organisation and creed that killed six million Jewish people makes him look foolish and his comments unbalanced.’
David Lammy, who is campaigning to stop Brexit, has previously blamed Eurosceptic rhetoric for fuelling death threats against his family. Last week, he accused Nigel Farage of ‘dog whistle threats’ after the new Brexit Party leader vowed to ‘put
the fear of God into our MPs’. However, appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Lammy made no apology for his own inflammatory remarks.
Asked if a comparison he made between the ERG and the Nazi Party and South African racists was unacceptable, he replied: ‘I would say that that wasn’t strong enough. In 1938 there were allies who hatched a plan for Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia, and Churchill said no, and he stood alone. We must not appease.’
When it was put to Mr Lammy that he was saying Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson were equivalent to the Nazis, Mr Lammy said: ‘Ask Boris Johnson why he’s hanging out with Steve Bannon (a former adviser to Donald Trump).’