Brexit news: Best for Britain leader compares Brexit to appeasing Nazi Germany
Lord Malloch-Brown, head of the pro-Brussels pressure group Best for Britain, claimed that leaving the bloc was an attempt to "pull away from Europe's problems" that could backfire on the UK. The peer, who was a Foreign Office minister in Gordon Brown's Labour government, raised the failed effort by Neville Chamberlain’s government to reach a compromise with Adolf Hitler's regime in the 1930s as a historical example of what could happen if Britain ignored events on the continent. In an interview on BBC Radio, he said: "Britain's history as an island nation adjacent to mainland Europe is when we try to, sort of, pull away from Europe's problems and close ourselves off to them they have a horrible habit of infecting us anyway. "Appeasement in the 1930s, you name it - for centuries Britain has ignored events on continental Europe at its peril."
Leaving the EU is not about closing ourselves off John Longworth, co-chairman of Leave Means Leave
Brexit supporters were enraged by the peer's remarks yesterday. John Longworth, co-chairman of the Brexit-backing pressure group Leave Means Leave, said: “This really is a crass comparison. “The Remain campaign are completely opposed to the democratic EU referendum of 2016 and will do everything they can to spread fear about Brexit and mock the 17.4 million people who voted to Leave. “Leaving the EU is not about closing ourselves off. "It is about taking back control and becoming a global, more outward looking Britain. The only appeasement that is going on right now is that being conducted by our government in the face of Brussels bullies.
GETTY Lord Malloch-Brown warned that pulling away from Europe would have negative consequences
“The anti-democratic, bullying behaviour of the EU has now been extended to Italy. Who would want to remain in a club that behaves like this. It perfectly demonstrates why we were right to vote to leave.” Tory MP Peter Bone: "This is an extraordinary and wholly inaccurate thing to say. "What Lord Malloch-Brown doesn't understand is that we are not turning away from Europe, we are turning away from the EU. "We want to have a deep and special relationship with the EU and the rest of Europe after Brexit. "That would include continuing security and defence cooperation, which has long been based on Nato and not the EU. "To bring up appeasement shows his desire to discredit the democratic vote of the British people to leave the EU."
Best for Britain was set up last year to campaign "to keep the UK open to EU membership". The organisation has adopted the slogan "Fight Brexit" and says it is "working to make sure citizens of the UK can make a fully-informed decision on the future of our country, in or out of Europe". International financier George Soros, an outspoken critic of the decision to quit the EU, has donated £400,000 to the organisation. Earlier this week, the tycoon promised that Best for Britain will unveil its manifesto for a second EU referendum "in the next few days". In a speech in Paris, 87-year-old Mr Soros said: "Brexit is an immensely damaging process, harmful to both sides."
GETTY George Soros said that plans for a new EU referendum would be unveiled in a matter of days