Anger after pro-Remain peer claims that Brexit ‘is like appeasing Hitler’
THE campaign to stop Britain leaving the EU caused outrage yesterday by comparing Brexit to the appeasement of Hitler.
Former foreign office minister Lord Malloch-Brown used the slur as part of an attempt to highlight the consequences of Britain ‘shutting itself off’ from the continent.
The peer threatened that opponents of Brexit would keep fighting until the referendum decision was overturned.
Lord Malloch-Brown, chairman of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, claimed democracy had ‘a history of U-turns’.
The attack came only days before the campaign, which is bankrolled by financier George Soros, launches its push for a second referendum to keep the country inside the European Union.
Last night, furious Eurosceptics said the ‘absurd’ and ‘crass’ comparison between Brexit and the appeasement of Nazi Germany showed the desperation and weakness of the Remainers’ arguments.
Lord Malloch-Brown made his remarks in an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said Britain needed to stay close to the EU because instances such as appeasement showed what happened when the UK tried to shut itself off from the continent.
He told the BBC: ‘Britain’s history as an island nation adjacent to mainland Europe is when we try to, sort of, pull away from Europe’s problems and close ourselves off to them. They have a horrible habit of infecting us anyway.
‘Appeasement in the 1930s, you name it. For centuries Britain has ignored events on continental Europe at its peril.’
He added: ‘Democracy is a history of U-turns. The day that Britons accept one election victory as the end of democracy, that a party is in power forever, is an unlikely moment. It is the same with this referendum.
‘It was a referendum on the principle to negotiate a deal for exit, we will soon see the terms of that deal, and it is already evident from the confusion in the Government those terms are going to offer Britain a less good economic prospect than we currently enjoy.’
He said Britons had been ‘very badly let down by their elected politicians on all sides’ and it was right for them to have a final say on whether the deal was good or not. He also claimed that even if his side lost another Brexit referendum, the new generation would keep fighting until they won.
He added: ‘The demographics are shifting in a way that makes it clear there is going to be a pro-EU majority in this country.’
Mr Soros – who has given £800,000 to Best for Britain – has promised the campaign for a second referendum will kickstart ‘in the next few days’.
Lord Malloch-Brown yesterday claimed Mr Soros’s reputation as the ‘man who broke the Bank of England’ was an ‘unrelated issue’. In 1992, the financier made £1billion by betting against sterling on the money markets.
Lord Malloch-Brown said: ‘He broke the Bank of England as a financier because the British pound was over-extended. It wasn’t credible. He broke the pound, not the Bank of England.’
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘I’m thinking that Lord Malloch-Brown has clearly lost his marbles and his history books. The Nazis sought to oppress nations, we want to liberate Britain.’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservative backbenchers, said: ‘It’s surprising that a man as intelligent as Lord Malloch-Brown does not realise that making these sort of comparisons shows the weakness of his argument.’
John Longworth, of pro-Brexit group Leave Means Leave, said: ‘This is a crass comparison.’