Juncker: I could have halted Brexit

JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker yesterday suggested he could have stopped Brexit.

The former European Commission chief said he was, however, warned off campaigning in Britain’s 2016 referendum by David Cameron.

‘I should not have listened to David Cameron,’ he told the i newspaper. ‘He told me not to interfere in the debate in the UK, not to come to London, not to do interviews with the British press. I made a mistake because I did not defend the EU’s point of view in the UK.’

He said he regretted the UK’s departure, adding: ‘These are down-to-earth people. Other Europeans are more volatile, more passionate, sometimes naive. I am just sad that this element of good sense has left Europe.’ Mr Juncker also hit back at rumours he was a heavy drinker, saying he suffered from sciatica – pain in the legs caused by trapped nerves. In 2018, he was seen staggering during a Nato summit in Brussels. But he insisted: ‘I still have the sciatica. I still limp. And yet they say the guy is drunk again. I’ve never been drunk in my life.’

IN lamenting Brexit, Jean-claude Juncker berates himself for staying out of the debate at David cameron’s request.

‘I did not defend the eU’s point of view,’ he says. ‘I should have spoken out.’

In truth, no words from the ex-commission president would have made the slightest difference to the result. British voters saw him very much as part of the problem.

But he and his commissars could have given mr cameron the minor exemptions he pleaded for on free market rules and ever-closer union.

Instead they sent him home empty-handed. It was that humiliation, not any oratorical reticence on mr Juncker’s part, that holed the Remain campaign below the water line.