Fury at Labour MEP’s ‘where there’s death, there’s hope’ tirade at ageing Leave voters
PRO-EU campaigners have outraged Leave supporters by issuing a ‘where there’s death, there’s hope’ taunt that ageing Brexit voters’ mortality rates will soon hand Remain victory at a second EU referendum.
Arch-Europhile and top Labour Euro MP Richard Corbett goaded Brexiteers by boasting how younger proBrussels voters will within weeks be in a majority in the UK – because older anti-EU voters were dying off.
Mr Corbett, Labour’s leader in the European Parliament, suggested that this would mean Remain would win if a second referendum were called, saying: ‘As someone joked to me the other day, where there’s death, there’s hope.’ The provocative remark came amid forecasts that January 19 will be Brexit ‘crossover day’ – the date when death rates mean pro-Brexit voters will be outnumbered by younger Remainers.
It coincided with a letter signed by more than 50 business leaders calling for a second referendum, warning of the potential economic damage from ‘either a blindfold or destructive Brexit’.
Arch-Brexiteers reacted with fury to the ‘death and hope’ remark. Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘This remark is as tasteless as it is misguided. In their zeal to defy democracy and overturn the verdict of the 2016 referendum, archRemainers wrongly assume that the clear majority for Leave is dwindling.
‘But that wilfully ignores the well-known fact that with age comes wisdom, and that many people who voted Remain now see they were wrong to do so in the first place.’
Up to 700,000 anti-Brexit campaigners marched through London last month to call for a second EU referendum.
Earlier this year, polling expert Peter Kellner predicted that the UK would shortly ‘switch from a pro-Brexit to an anti-Brexit’ country – based on the changing age profile of voters coming on to the electoral register. Using data from a YouGov survey, he said the 1.26million Leave majority at the referendum was being eroded by 1,350 a day.
And he named January 19 as ‘crossover day’ when antiBrexit voters would start to outnumber Leavers.