Brexiteers of the Week: Former UKIP MEP claims Leavers too busy to pick crops
Former UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
STEVE ANGLESEY looks at the Brexiteers making the headlines for the wrong reasons.
THE FRUITCAKES
Brexiteer environment minister (and former UKIP candidate) George Eustice suggested a shortage of fruit pickers, caused by the absence of EU migrants who normally do the dirty work, should be eased by workers currently on furlough. Former 'Kipper MEP Godfrey Bloom wanted the roles filled by 'students with nothing to do', while right-wing pundit Andrew 'Tory Boy' Pierce asked, 'shouldn't young unemployed people be required to take the jobs?'
One obvious answer to the shortage in our fields would be asking Leavers, who voted for fewer EU workers in the first place, to pick up the slack. But Bloom explained that these were all 'self-employed and small businessmen and women already working'. Yes, all 17.4 million of them!
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GEORGIA TOFFOLO
Congratulations to the Made in Chelsea star, a 2016 Remain voter who came out as a born-again Brexiteer last year, who is getting hitched to former Nigel Farage sideman 'Posh' George Cottrell.
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It's perhaps for the best that no honeymoon flights are available right now, as the pair don't have a lot of luck in airports. Last December Georgia posted a tearful video message after being detained for nine hours in the Maldives after she turned up with a damaged passport, while in July 2016 George was arrested as he and Farage got off in a plane in Chicago. Facing 20 years in jail, he served only eight months for wire fraud after helping the FBI with their enquiries.
ROBERT HALFON
The Tory MP for Harrow was roasted for brown-nosing after he greeted the prime minister's return to Downing Street by tweeting 'Good to see Boris Johnson back at the helm' together with a video clip of a magnificent-looking adult male lion atop a hillside.
Not only did this spark thousands of quips about lions lazing around all day, eating and mating while the females do all the hard graft, but the big beast in the video turned out to be Mufasa from Disney's recent live action/CGI remake of their own The Lion King. As millions of junior schoolers know, he ends up being done in by his jealous brother. Careful with that dinner invite for Jo!
ANN WIDDECOMBE
The former Brexit Party MEP has used her Daily Express column to demand more media coverage of coronavirus in one particular part of the world, writing: 'If I want to know what this hideous disease is doing to Africa I have to hunt the
net. Black lives matter, do they not?'
Of course, the Express is noted for its comprehensive coverage of events in Ouagadougou and Brazzaville. But that isn't the only thing about Ann's rant which is raising eyebrows. Just last December, she was showing how much black lives matter to her by refusing to apologise to BAME groups after using the word 'golliwog' in a private WhatsApp chat with Brexiteer activists. 'They should not be offended by it,' she said.
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