Former Minister compares Brexit to British appeasement of Nazi Germany in late 1930s

BREXIT HAS been compared to appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s by a leading supporter of George Soros’s efforts to force a second EU referendum.

Former Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown made the comments as he backed the billionaire’s campaign for a second vote on EU membership.

Mr Soros – who is reported to have given about £500,000 to Best for Britain, which was set up last year by anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller – said action was needed as EU withdrawal was “immensely damaging” for the UK.

Lord Malloch-Brown, inset, 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 BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “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 said Mr Soros’s reputation as the “man who broke the Bank of England” in 1992, when the financier bet against sterling on the money markets, was an “unrelated issue” to the antiBrexit push. “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, I should say. He has devoted decades to an extraordinary global philanthropy which has fought for democracy and open values.”

Best for Britain will publish its campaign manifesto calling for a second referendum on June 8.

The OECD has upgraded its forecasts for UK economic performance, with GDP growth now expected to hit 1.4 per cent this year (up from 1.2 per cent), but warned of continuing “high uncertainties” over the outcome of Brexit.