Nick Clegg: Brexit was a ‘punch in the face’ for Britain

Brexit was a “self inflicted punch in the face” that has left Britain “poorer, weaker, less safe and less sovereign”.

The “vast majority” of voters know it was a mistake – and Britain needs Europe more than ever because it can no longer rely on America to defend it.

The claims are made by former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg in an interview with The Independent as part of its Europe: The Way Back campaign to mark the tenth anniversary of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Sir Nick, deputy prime minister in the 2010-15 Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government, compared Brexit to a “massive cardiac arrest”.

Brexiteer campaigners in the 2016 referendum had dismissed warnings that the UK would suffer badly if it cut links with Brussels as “Project Fear” – but the warnings had turned out to be true, he told Independent editor Geordie Greig in The Talk Show on Independent TV.

“Much of the rest of the world has had to deal with things like Covid, wars in Ukraine, Iran and so on,” said Sir Nick. “But no other country has punched itself in the face quite so forcefully as we have done over the last 10 to 20 years.

“We are poorer, weaker, less safe, and… here’s the great irony, less sovereign. That is the tragedy (of) those fibs from the Brexiteers that we would somehow take control. (It) has actually led to a decade where we have less control over our own destiny.

“The vast majority of British people know Brexit was a mistake. The vast majority of younger people passionately know it’s a mistake and want… to be plugged back into the European continent.”

Sir Nick said the Brexit mandate was “wafer thin” because of the narrow 52 per cent 48 per cent vote in favour in the referendum.

“Many people who voted for Brexit didn’t think they were handing Brexiteers a mandate to behave as if they’d won 90 per cent of the vote,” he said.

“They hadn’t won: the country was evenly split. It has meant that the Brexit that we are now living with is even more self-defeating.”

Some Britons had an exaggerated view of the UK’s place in the modern global pecking order, said Sir Nick, who joined US social media giant Facebook after his Lib Dem party fared badly in the 2015 election.

“We’re a relatively small country in the grand scheme of things, floating off the muddy northwest fringes of Europe. In my seven-odd years in Silicon Valley, I was never asked by the tech bros much about the UK at all. They would sometimes ask me what my views were on Harry and Meghan… us Brits, because of our glorious and grand history, overstate how important we are to others.”

It was one of the reasons why Britain needed Europe. In addition, Brexit had failed economically, said Sir Nick.

‘“Project Fear” about some of the economic consequences has turned out to be more right than what was assumed at the time,” he said.

Leaving the EU had slashed the UK’s GDP by 6 to 8 per cent, he added.

“That makes the economic damage of Brexit equivalent to the other great terrible economic heart attack in the last decade or two, the 2008 financial shock. (It) is why we’re now in such an enfeebled state – two massive economic cardiac arrests.

“My message to people who still believe that going it alone is a viable strategy… that plucky Britain is going to be able to punch above its weight, (it) is a fantasy. We’re only as strong as we are together with others.”

Sir Nick expressed “real anger” at the “industrial scale mendacity” of Brexiteers.

“It is a fundamental lie to claim that you are going to be more in control of yourself by separating yourself off from your neighbours. We’re not like China or the US. We’re a great country… with a great past, but nowhere near the same league as the major powers that can determine their own fate.”

Supporters of leaving the EU believed in “fables and fairy tales” that our future lay with America not Europe, said Sir Nick.

“Whether you like it or not, we’re on this side of the Atlantic. We’re not part of the US. We are in Europe. It’s as if the Brexiteers want to perpetuate this fable, this fairy tale, that we can pretend we’re somehow nestled next to Connecticut. We’re not: we’re right next to Belgium and the Netherlands.”

However, Sir Nick saw no easy or quick way back into the EU for Britain.

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This was partly because other nations were wary of what he called Britain’s “Hokey Cokey” changing attitude towards it over many decades.

“If you’re sitting in Paris or Berlin or Brussels, and remember what an utter drain it’s been on their time and attention, this endless melodrama in the UK, this Hokey Cokey are we in, out…”

Donald Trump’s hostility to Europe was another reason to be closer to the EU because Britain could no longer rely on the US to come to its aid.

“There has been a permanent shift in the body politic in the US. If you listen to… what Vance (and) Trump, say, they don’t just think that Europe is whiny, weak and feeble – as in many respects we unfortunately are compared to US – they have real contempt for Europe.”

“The things they really hate are immigrants… a swivel-eyed obsession against wind farms, and whiny Europeans. This is not a temporary shift. It is permanent.

“We can no longer rely on our traditional ally, the US, we are alone. If anyone thinks that being alone is a smart place to be in this modern world, they’ve got another think coming.

“The Brexiteers and fantasists who still believe we can regress to some gunboat diplomacy history where we could ride the waves as some great naval nation and to hell with everybody else. It’s just not the world we live in anymore.”

The UK’s hopes of rejoining EU could hinge on Ukraine, argued Sir Nick.

“Our fate back in Europe in one shape or form will be very closely yoked to the fate of Ukraine. Ukraine will eventually join the EU. It is unthinkable that Ukraine would be at the top table of decision making in Europe and we would not, given the amount of sweat and treasure we have rightly committed to protect Ukraine’s independence.”

Watch the full 50-minute interview here.

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