‘I was fooled’: Brexiteer tells James O’Brien he would now vote Remain

Caller Daniel from Newton told James O’Brien on his LBC show that he was scared of upcoming trade deals with America and would now vote Remain.

He said that during the referendum, he “wasn’t just a passionate Leaver”, but even “drove people to the booth to vote Leave”.

One of his main reasons for wanting to leave the EU had been because of the bloc’s interest in the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

TTIP was a series of trade negotiations between the EU and US, which ended without conclusion in 2016.

The LBC caller said: “That was why I wanted to get out. After the vote, obviously the EU voted TTIP down, so I should have stayed in.

“I would vote Remain now. I am quite emotional about this, because I was fooled.”

O’Brien told Daniel that he shouldn’t be so hard on himself, noting “there’s a lot of effort put into persuading you to do what you do by clever, wealthy, powerful people.”

O’Brien added: “The way the TTIP was portrayed, it was a proposed trade agreement between the whole of the EU and the US, and there was a lot in it that was deeply problematical.

“By all means get emotional but don’t be hard on yourself.”

Daniel said there are still things he does not like about the EU. “But any sort of agreement with America scares the life out of me,” he said.

“Jeremy Corbyn – I’m not a big fan of his, I’d never vote for someone naturally like him – but he’s the only person offering a customs union,” he continued.

“A customs union takes any trade deal with America out of the equation, because it means we have to retain all of the workers’ rights.”

O’Brien then clarified that a customs union would still allow the UK to trade with the US nearly as much as it liked, but said “it means we won’t be compelled to accept their standards in various area which are, I think everyone agrees, lower than the European Union”.

The caller agreed, saying: “I don’t want TTIP under any guise.”