Ashdown’s Brexit ‘brownshirts’ slur

FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown was criticised last night after comparing Brexiteers to Nazi paramilitaries.

The Europhile peer declared on social media that the ‘Tory Brexit brownshirts are stirring’ after predicting that Theresa May would face accusations of ‘betrayal’ at the Conservative Party conference over her rejection of a pointsbased immigration system.

But his use of the term ‘brownshirts’ – the Nazi Party paramilitary wing that helped Hitler’s rise to power – drew a welter of criticism.

Conservative MP James Cleverly demanded an apology for the ‘disgusting’ slur. He responded to Lord Ashdown: ‘So I’m a Nazi now am I?’ Fellow Tory William Wragg, who backed the campaign to leave the European Union, accused Lord Ashdown of ‘hysteria’.

He said: ‘If you’re going to dismiss those who campaigned for Leave as Nazis, which is by extension what he’s done, then it’s a bit contemptuous of the population and the result, regardless of what side he campaigned on.’

In later comments on Twitter, Lord Ashdown wrote: ‘Brownshirt-gate. Heavens! Even allowing for these over-heated times, do we really have to lose contact with the concept of the metaphor?’