Brexiteer suggests he voted for medical shortages

A Brexiteer is interviewed on BBC News. Photograph: BBC. - Credit: Archant

A Brexiteer took on the doctor behind some of the guidance given to the government in its Yellowhammer documents – and appeared to suggest he voted for medical shortages in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

While Remainers have argued that nobody voted for medical shortages, delays at ports, or a lack of food, the Brexiteers have consistently argued that this was scaremongering.

But during campaigning on the streets of Birmingham, Dr David Nichol – who warned that the government was stockpiling body bags for deaths in the event of a no-deal Brexit – was surprised to find a diabetic who was happy to put up without insulin if it meant we left the European Union without a deal.

Nichol, who had been accused of delivering ‘Project Fear’ by Brexiteer MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, was initially speaking to the BBC for its Breakfast programme.

Speaking to a reporter he denied he was “scaremongering” when he said it was a “life or death situation”.

He said: “I’m presenting the data… this is peer reviewed data. And they may say ‘well actually I accept that expert advice and I am willing because I feel so passionately about this Brexit project that I’m willing to accept that mortality rate and that morbidity rise.

“Good on you, think about that, just think about that and explain that to your families in years to come.”

But when questioning members of the public about what they made of the warnings, he encountered resistance from one diabetic who wanted a no-deal Brexit, even if it put at risk his medicine.

“So you rely on insulin?” asked the reporter – witnessing the pair disagreeing.

“Yeah I rely on insulin,” confirmed the member of the public. “But I still want to leave.”

“If the insulin doesn’t arrive, for you as a diabetic, you think that’s a price worth paying?” enquiried the reporter.

“Yeah I do,” the Brexiteer replied while nodding.

“Why do you feel so strongly about it?” asked the reporter somewhat flabbergasted.

“Because we voted to leave, we didn’t vote for a deal, we didn’t vote for anything, we voted to leave Europe,” he told the BBC. “And that’s all we want right, we’re either a democracy or we’re not”.

But more assuringly Nichol also encountered those that had concerned – for instance a member of the public with a degenerative brain condition and someone whose son who suffers from leukemia.

“You can’t put children’s lives at risks,” he told the doctor.