Happy Brexit day! It is three years today that Britain left the EU. And a useful reminder of just why that happened was offered this morning in the form of Guy Verhofstadt, the arch-Eurocrat and lifelong federalist. The former Belgian Prime Minister popped up in LBC to eulogise the supra-national institutions to which he has dedicated his life. While bemoaning us Brits for the audacity of wanting to leave, he even found a way to suggest that Brexit was responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – even though neither nation is a member of the European Union. Verhofstadt told Nick Ferrari that:
A united Europe, certainly on defence matters, would make an enormous difference. I think maybe, without Brexit, maybe there was no invasion. I don’t know.
Verhofstadt then doubled down on the clip, quoting it in a tweet and captioning it ‘Brexit made Britain poorer, Europe weaker… and worst of all, it made liberal democracy’s enemies happier ! An unforgivable mistake… but a great democracy like Britain’s can always turn around and fix its mistakes.
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