Mike Galsworthy clashed with Sir Bill Clash over the UK’s split with the European Union eight years on since the referendum took place in 2016.
The Tory MP and prominent Eurosceptic said he remains upbeat about Brexit, despite evidence piling up to the contrary and public opinion towards the split souring.
He said Brexit has allowed the UK to regain self-government and sovereignty as well as the ability to “make our own laws” and blamed the adverse economic shocks on Russia’s war with Ukraine and Covid.
But European Movement chair Mike Galsworthy had an altogether different view of the fallout.
He said: “What we just listened to is entirely removed to the lived experiences of the working population.
“Analysis has stripped our Covid and Ukraine and found the impact of Brexit is twice the size of Covid.
“Sovereignty is the power to make the decisions about your own life or your own country.
“When we were in the EU we invested part of our sovereignty in people’s ability to travel and working in other countries and our businesses to trade freely.
“With Brexit we saw sovereignty shrinkage. We pulled it all back to a government to make decisions, and they haven’t used it to do anything useful at all. It’s bee a waste of sovereignty. Whereas EU membership was a much better investment of sovereignty.”
Asked by Ayesha Hazarika whether we should allow ten to 20 years to see the benefits of Brexit, as claimed by former cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, Galsworthy added:
“Do we need more time to see the benefits of Brexit, and they can’t even tell us what those benefits will be? Or do we need more time to how bad it is..
“Many people think, with Brexit, we can see the damage, there isn’t promise of good stuff coming through, so we should pull the plug on it.
“Labour should talk more about Brexit.. Right now Keir Starmer’s responsibility is to win a general election.. But should he get into power his responsibilities change: they are to British citizens, British businesses. And our businesses will be crying out to get rid of that Brexit red tape and getting back in.
“And our citizens will be crying out to travel freely in the EU.”
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