Brexit backers are just jihadis, says Sir Vince
‘More like Victor Meldrew’
SIR Vince Cable sparked outrage last night by branding those who want to leave the EU as ‘Brexit jihadis’.
The Liberal Democrat leader also attacked pensioners who voted Leave despite the economic risks, calling them ‘martyrs’ and saying they were guilty of ‘shafting the young’.
His outburst was immediately condemned – with critics saying Sir Vince was guilty of ‘contempt for ordinary voters’. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘Vince gets more like Victor Meldrew every day. He is a Brexit denier and he doesn’t accept the will of the British people which was expressed again at the last general election which was why the Lib Dems only got 12 seats. The second referendum and antiBrexit politics of the Lib Dems failed at the recent election. They were rejected by the British people and he needs to accept that.’
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Cable shows his contempt for the views of ordinary people and the democratic process. The Lib Dems will continue to decline.’
Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead said: ‘Not only is he patronising, he is undermining his own base because he must have been elected by older voters. Should the minority in Twickenham [Sir Vince’s constituency] who voted against him now have the right to a new vote? Here we see the birth of Britain’s Donald Trump to lead the Remainers.’
In an article for the Mail on Sunday, Sir Vince, 74, defined Brexit martyrs as those who say economic pain is a price worth paying for getting away from Brussels. He said there had been a ‘subtle change in the arguments used by leading Brexiteers’.
‘They used to tell us about the money that would be saved for the NHS and jobs created through new trade agreements,’ he wrote.
Now they ‘largely accept’ the economy will suffer, he claimed – but would embrace ‘economic pain as a price worth paying for “taking back control”: almost as a badge of honour’. He said: ‘To describe such masochism as “martyrdom” is dangerous. We haven’t yet heard about “Brexit jihadis” but there is an undercurrent of violence in the language which is troubling.
‘The old have comprehensively shafted the young. And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a world view coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe.’