A Labour MP has laid bare the ‘big swizz’ of Brexit Party arguments when a newly-elected MEP tried to claim that the 2016 Leave vote was solely for a hard Brexit.
On BBC’s Question Time, broadcast from Epsom, Brexit Party MEP Alex Phillips was in full flow with the claim that Leavers voted in 2016 to exit the EU’s customs union and the single market.
When she continued to defend her assertion, MP Barry Gardiner challenged her to defend this when both Norway and Turkey are part of the single market and an EU customs union respectively without being an EU member.
Prior to the referendum, influential campaigners like Arron Banks and MP Daniel Hannan said that Brexit would not necessarily mean leaving the single market and Nigel Farage repeatedly talked approvingly about a Norway-style Brexit.
“This is the big swizz that’s gone on,” said Gardiner.
Credit where it's due. Well done Barry Gardiner!
— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) May 30, 2019
He just completely undid the entire mandate of the Brexit Party MEP.#BBCqt @bbcquestiontime pic.twitter.com/kzd3t7kxNL
“People like you have actually said ‘what you voted for when you voted to leave the EU was no deal’.
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“… You have actually tried to persuade people that leaving the EU means what you want it to,” he said to applause.
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