It is remarkable that a former MP, first elected to parliament 47 years ago, should go viral on social media with 7.5 million views and counting.
My interview with Sir John Major, the former prime minister and elder statesman, has reached record audiences for The Independent, which is a pioneer of digital journalism and became the first daily newspaper to go digital-only a decade ago.
Sir John has captured social media with his cut-through common sense and calm authority as he speaks out on the tenth anniversary of Brexit.
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As a passionate Remainer, he exploded the myths of any Brexit dividend. He endorsed the fiscal calculations of the Bank of England for the financial damage as he revealed an annual £100billion hole in our finances thanks to Brexit.
His steely assessment that any party that cannot find a leader from its ranks of 400 MPs and had to find a local mayor shows some weakness in its structure and purpose.
He also exposed the moral turpitude of Nigel Farage accepting millions as a personal gift from a crypto billionaire and still claiming independence.
Watch The Independent editor-in-chief Geordie Greig in conversation with Sir John Major in full below:
“The aim within the next five years must be to rejoin the single market,” he said. “But that will have a price. We are going to have to be absolutely honest with the British people. If we go back into the single market, we say, ‘Here are the gains we proposed and here is the price that we will have to pay for it’.”
In a withering attack on the leaders of the Brexit campaign, including Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, over the economic damage of Brexit, he said: “Michael Gove said that after we leave, we will hold all the cards. Well, the only cards they held were P45s, for people who lost their jobs.”
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He derided the Brexiteers’ “Take Back Control” slogan and their pledge to “regain sovereignty”, and accused them of making “impossible promises”.
Sir John said: “We know who the losers are. It is every wallet, every purse and every balance sheet in the country. They are the losers. There’s only one country in the world that is completely sovereign, and that is North Korea.”
He claimed Brexiteers “know in their heart” that Brexit had “failed to deliver”.
More than two in three voters now saw Brexit as a mistake, said Sir John, who observed: “So I think we will get back into Europe.”
But, he admitted, the negotiations would not be easy.
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