Billionaire Brexiteer John Caudwell received a ruthless dressing down on News Night with Emily Maitlis last night.
The Phones 4 U founder said Brussels should have been “delighted to do a deal with us” given the amount of trade that we do with the European Union every year.
He said: “If the Europeans don’t do a deal they will be £80 billion worse off potentially.
“They should want the deal desperately on commercial terms, all they’re doing is playing brinkmanship and taking advantage”.
But Sainsbury’s former CEO Justin King managed to debunk one of the most trumpeted Leave arguments in just 40 seconds as he laid out the reality of the situation.
He said: “There’s an irony here that a Brexiteer should be surprised by what has happened over the past few years. I as a Remainer am not at all.
“John quoted some impressive figures but, of course, it is the asymmetric nature of our relationship that Europe is about 40 per cent plus of our trading relationships today. We are, across the whole of Europe, about eight per cent of theirs.
“That kind of asymmetric relationship is what underpins the strength of their negotiating position”.
Watch the clip in full below:
Brexiter billionaire @JohnDCaudwell on #Newsnight just could NOT understand HOW we ended up staring at bad deal or no deal, because “we hold all the cards”, “they need us more than we need them”, etc.
— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) December 9, 2020
Former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King explained to him in 40 devastating seconds. pic.twitter.com/gzneA3pzpT
Related: A one-off ‘wealth tax’ could raise £260bn, says Commission
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
