'It's nonsense on stilts Nigel' | Nigel Farage & John Bercow clash over whether Brexit was a mistake

uh well it's been three years since Britain left the EU after years of acrimonious infighting over the 2016 referendum results the former prime minister Boris Johnson won a barnstorming majority off the back of the result with labor scrambling to keep the party together well how times have changed a recent poll by unheard indicates that almost all British constituencies believe we were wrong to exit the European Union so was brexit a mistake we're now joined by former Speaker of the House of Commons John burko as well as former leader of the brexit party and GB news presenter Nigel farage both of you thank you very much indeed for joining us Nigel perhaps I could start with with you because we had this on or heard poll showed that 54 of the country agreed that Britain was wrong to leave the EU and only 28 disagreed so it seems the majority now think leaving the EU was a mistake what would you say to those people but it was a mistake to leave the European Union exit in the hands of something called the conservative party they never believed in it from the start they dragged their heels we were put through three years of total misery I mean old burko here helped make it more difficult but it had to be but the truth of it is the truth of it is you know but to me three years ago this week we moved house right and there were lots of new rooms and lots of excitement but to make it work we had to be truly Dynamic and make real change but the truth is most of those packing boxes are still there and even little wins like removing the five percent minimum vat that Europe demanded on our domestic energy bills even things like that haven't been done so what the polling shows is disenchantment you know and if you ask me right now am I disappointed with brexit I'm sorry to say I'm gonna have to say yes so the government have made an absolute pigs ear of the whole thing in purely economic terms in purely economic terms right now the sovereignty argument's simple we're self-governing there are no excuses we've won back the birthright to mismanage our own country and we're doing a jolly good job of that we have our own I mean it's easy to point the blame elsewhere but do you think when the debate was going on people should have been a little bit more honest and realistic about the time it would take to move on because certain things have happened you're not paying into the EU budget you've got freedom of your own laws you've not got freedom of movement the big things have happened but those are the things you're talking about should you as well when you were championing it'd be a little bit more honest about the time scale yes we should have triggered article 50 on the 24th of June 2016. it should have been done immediately if we'd done that there wouldn't have been time for the remainer the second referendum the mega winch campaign we should have got on with the job we have done none of those things and you know there are five and a half million women in this country running small businesses they expected to see relief from excessive regulation it'll be seven years in a couple of months time since that vote and as yet they've seen nothing so look it's been horribly mishandled I don't think there's any chance of it being reversed in terms of us joining but I do feel that the next Labor government will probably keep us very tightly aligned to single Market rules and in the economic side of the argument we just won't get the benefits and it's very disappointing John if I can bring bring you in here I mean Nigel's case is pretty much so it's not really brexit that's default that's at fault it's the conservative government that's implemented it and perhaps people in Parliament aided and abetted by you who try to frustrate it but look you know we were told that within weeks of voting to leave the EU the economy would collapse we need a punishment budget um no project fear exactly or the whole point it didn't really happen did it what what the people who campaign for remain said didn't it might not have gone as well as Nigel thought he hasn't gone as he hasn't gone as badly as people said it would has it indeed I'm not going to be held responsible for what George Osborne did or didn't say or imply at the time that isn't within my daily way what I would say to Nigel who's a cheeky chappie he's an amiable Rogue some would say incorrigible so you as well George well he does remind me of University days when one used to debate with members of the Socialist Workers Party and when they lambasted capitalism International capitalism global capitalism those of us who took a different view would say well look at socialism look at the evidence in practice in the Soviet Union to which they responded they were a constantly moving targeting ah no that's not real socialism that's a distortion that's divorce that's State capitalism with Nigel instead of taking it on the team and recognizing that in fact to date it has been a grotesque Lumber and the biggest foreign policy mistake at the post-war period what Niger wants to do because he can't abandon the religiosity of his lifelong support for brexit is to blame someone else so it's mysterious forces it's if you like a fifth or sixth estate it's those Machiavellian types working night and day to frustrate the will of the British people or the designs of farage I mean really it is nonsense on stilts Nigel and to be honest I say to you in all politeness in Canada you can do a bit better than that why not start by admitting first but people are poorer wages are down foreign direct investment has slumped Sterling has taken a permanent 10 hit the economy has been hit to the tune of about a hundred okay let's bring Nigel in for some of that because other people might say covert have that impact so let's bring Nigel in remember what brexit's about remember the big point of brexit is to be a self-governing democratic nation and and that means you can get things right and you can get things wrong all right very simple as opposed to the vast majority of our law and certainly in commercial law 80 of it being made somewhere else over which we have little say so we're in charge we can't blame Brussels anymore but the point is it's never a mistake for country to be independent Sovereign and free that is never ever a mistake my complaint is that the party that was given the job of carrying it out didn't actually believe in it we started off with a negotiation that was always going to give us a rubbish deal and there's so much more we can do and you know John until last year we were actually the fastest growing economy in the G7 wages in the first three or four years after brexit did go up quite appreciably now you know on economics we can argue until the cows come home about whether it's hurtless whether it's benefited us my argument is this the brexit needed supplies I report reform to maximize the potential benefits that's about us becoming more competitive than our European neighbors John we haven't done semi-completion no conspiracies Nigel I've listened carefully and with respect to that thesis but what I say to you is this it's one thing to excoriate Theresa May or indeed before her David Cameron by saying well neither of them was a believer in brexit and that would be true I think she did her honest plodding inadequate grossly unimaginative best to be fair but I accept that she presided over the matter in political terms with absolutely crashing attitude where your argument seems to me to be on very difficult ground is that you can't very well lacerate Boris Alexander de faithful on the same front Boris Johnson came out explicitly in support of brexit he wanted brexit he favored brexit he championed brexit he wanted in fact a brexit not dissimilar to that which you support and so if you argue the case Nigel as I know you would want candidly to do barely and honestly look at brexit under Bujo not under May or Cameron or the secret remainers or ramonas and it has been a terrible face let me just don't let me just just come in John let me just let me just ask you a question here allow Philip to be the speaker how how can you be so sure that brexit has failed I mean literally we left the EU uh three years ago within six weeks we've got a covered pandemic where the government ridiculously in my opinion but they locked down their country for two year the economy they literally paid people to do nothing clearly there was going to be a massive economic consequence from the from locking down the economy uh we're facing the consequences now of that the spike in demand and the huge inflation that followed the war in Ukraine with Energy prices we haven't really seen the evidence of brexit ever because everything has been colored by what happened over who is your saying that because of everything collapsed during the lockdown it's all brexit's fault it's not is it I think that if you'll forgive me saying so even frankly Philip if you weren't I would say that that is an act of self-delusion on your part as you know I've always given you the highest brownie points for your extreme Candor both in the chamber and outside look of course but I'm gonna join in with the filipia I'm going to join in because I absolutely locking the world down for two years has has a significant impact and he can't throw that away over to you John Esther I don't disagree with either of you or indeed with Nigel if he were to say that Kobe has had a deleterious impact that I think is an incontestable fact about which we can quickly agree and move on the issue is this given that very large numbers of other countries right across the world were negatively affected by kovid as well how have they bounced back it is and a searing Corner skating indictment of brexit that's nearly two years after the worst of it we are predicted in 2024 Nigel by the oecd to be the worst performing economy of all now I think if you're going to operate in the spirit of awareness you'd have to say no you can't blame that on Kobe so no doubt nothing will Retreat into his rights it's the pulse of the ramonas no they are because brexit did not force this government into giving us the highest tax burden in 70 years productivity that is 20 below that of France but I can't believe I've never seen a Frenchman work and yet our productivity is his level of theirs we have made a hash of this but I will say this to you because of brexit we've signed the orcus deal with Australia a very significant important foreign policy development because of brexit we've taken the lead in Ukraine now you can agree or disagree with that position but it wouldn't have happened as members of a European Union because the brexit we were able to get a quick fast effective vaccine rollout whilst the rest of Europe was waiting for some woman from Cyprus who hadn't even been elected to make decisions we had a very successful rollout of the vaccine because of its symptoms but unfortunately you suffer from the disadvantages we haven't rewarded brexit voters and and much of working class Britain with the genuine rewards that could have come and I go back to that point just taking the five percent the 80 of domestic fuel would have been a very clear brexit win but the big one and this is what no one wants to talk about and as I speak to you as I speak to you I'm looking over the English Channel all right now there are no dengues today but many days I can see them from this very room we voted millions millions of extra people turned out in that referendum who don't normally vote and they did it to get back control of our borders and reduce the numbers coming into Britain that has been a catastrophe and that has nothing to do with brexit it's actually to do with the Tory government and the fact we haven't completed brexit by leaving it there because we're running out of time and I understand your strength John you can't just keep talking I mean

Channel: GBNews

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Keywords: GB news, gbnews, Great Britain, United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, news, UK News, UK

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Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023