Brexiteer claims tactical voting guides for elections show we live in a ‘dictatorship’

Iain Dale answers calls from listeners. Photograph: LBC. - Credit: Archant

A Brexiteer has used a radio phone-in show to claim that we are a ‘dictatorship’ – and tactical voting guides is evidence of this.

Keith was branded an “idiot” by LBC Radio host Iain Dale when he called into his programme to make the claims to Gina Miller, who has just launched a tactical voting guide to highlight ways to prevent Boris Johnson winning a majority at the election.

He said: “It is totally wrong, she is only interested in her business interests in Europe”.

He continued to rant about the “biased Supreme Court judges” and “the 75% Remainer MPs” before host Dale interrupted.

“You only think they’re biased because they made a decision that you disagree with”, he told the caller.

But Keith continued: “The 75% of MPs in parliament are Remainers, Gina Miller is a Remainer and I think that the Supreme Court judges are because they have overridden the parliament statutes saying that the judges cannot get involved with politics. That has turned, all those three entities, have turned parliament into a dictatorship and that’s a very dangerous thing to do.”

“Well it would be if it were true,” responded the presenter.

As Keith defended himself, he continued to criticise Gina Miller. He said: “I think her tactical voting idea is an extension of this possible dictatorship trying to pervert, removing the Conservatives”.

“I mean, just listen to yourself when you use words like dictatorship. Everybody’s listening, thinking ‘what an idiot’,” responded Iain Dale. “We don’t have a dictatorship in this country, just because the Supreme Court judges made a decision you don’t like, just because parliament elected people that made a decision you do not like, that does not mean we have a dictatorship.”

He pointed out that Keith has an opportunity to vote out Remainer MPs in an election. “That’s not a dictatorship, that’s democracy,” he continued.

The caller by this point argued that he had not said he believed we were living in a dictatorship but those MPs were “turning parliament into a dictatorship”.

Dale said if that was the case “we wouldn’t be having an election on December 12th”.

The caller eventually conceded that he had “put too much emphasis on the word”.

“Well I’m afraid by doing that you undermine your case completely, because if you exaggerate your case nobody is going to believe you”, said the presenter.