Leading Brexit ultra Iain Duncan Smith has admitted to maligning John Major in numerous interviews without ever seeing his Brexit speech.
In the wake of former prime minister’s devastating speech about the failures of Brexit, IDS booked himself to talk on various television and radio shows in an attempt to discredit Major without bothering to see the speech. He finally admitted his lack of preparation in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
In interviews by Brexit mouthpieces Jacob Rees-Mogg and IDS following Major’s speech it became clear that the their strategy was to try and attack the former prime minister on a personal level rather than address his serious concerns about their failure to make Brexit a success. That IDS did not feel the need to listen to Major’s speech before attacking him, demonstrate’s how low the debate has sunk in UK politics over the subject of Brexit. No cabinet minister or Brexit ultra has addressed any of Major’s concerns.
In an impassioned speech on Wednesday, Major said the government’s Brexit strategy of ‘having cake and eating it’ was “unrealistic” and that it was parliament’s duty to consider the “wellbeing of the people” when deciding on whether to carry out a plan that all forecasts say will make Britons significantly poorer.
All calls for sober discussion about the fact that Brexit is already causing the UK’s economy to fall behind every other country in the G7 have been met with personal attacks from the likes of Rees-Mogg, IDS, Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage and their supporters at the Daily Mail, Sun, and Express.
Meanwhile, the public iss turning increasingly hostile to Brexit. A plurality of the public now believe Brexit will have a negative impact and Britons favour a second referendum on Brexit by a 16-point margin, according to the latest polls.
