Michel Barnier says 'politicians peddling Brexit are stuck in the past’

Michel Barnier, the incoming chief Brexit negotiator for the European Commission. Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg via Getty Images - Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Nostalgia for a time when Britain was a ‘powerful’ and ‘global’ nation was partly to blame for the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, Michel Barnier has claimed.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said nostalgia “serves no purpose in politics”, as he warned Tory leadership hopefuls that Brussels will not renegotiate Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement.

Barnier, who is tipped to replace the outgoing European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said politicians supporting Brexit were stuck in the past.

In comments that are likely to enrage Conservative Brexiteers, he told the New York Review Of Books: “Looking at the causes of Brexit, we also find typically British reasons: the hope for a return to a powerful global Britain, nostalgia for the past-nostalgia serves no purpose in politics.

“In my country, too, some politicians still prefer to live in the past.

“But there were, also, people voting for Brexit who simply don’t want to accept rules.

“Some based in the City of London voted to leave, as they don’t want to accept the Union’s regulations on their trading; they want to speculate freely and the Union doesn’t allow them to do so.

“Finally, and most importantly, there are many people who feel abandoned.

“They feel that the quality of public services, healthcare, transport, is worsening.

“We must listen to these fears and address them.”