Broadcaster tears apart demands for Britain to return to the bloc in the next decade
Andrew Neil warned of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ (Image: BBC)
Andrew Neil ripped into calls to rejoin the EU during an appearance on tonight’s Question Time. The broadcaster argued that the UK would be returning to a “different Europe” from the one it left in 2016, due to the rise of right-wing parties.
He also highlighted how Britain’s growth, despite being sluggish, has been higher than that of Germany, France and Italy since quitting the club. Mr Neil’s comments came as the BBC show debated whether the UK should rejoin the EU in the next decade, following a demand from Sir Tony Blair’s think tank. He said: “The political class continue this debate today as if the Europe we left in 2016 is the Europe of today, it’s nothing like the Europe of today.” He pointed out that centrist leaders were in charge of France, Germany and Italy in 2016.
Mr Neil went on: “Today, the AfD in Germany, if you want to see a hard-right party, go to Germany. If there were an election tomorrow, the AfD would have more seats in the Bundestag than the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats combined.
“Every opinion poll in France, no matter who she’s up against, Marine Le Pen wins next year’s presidential election. And, of course, Italy already has the populist right.
“Six or seven countries by this time next year will be run by right or pretty hard-right governments. That’s a different Europe.”
Mr Neil added: “Our growth rate is nothing to write home about, but our growth rate every year since Covid has been higher than the growth rate of the three biggest European economies – Germany, Italy and France.
“We’ve grown more every year than they have. Not by a lot because nobody’s growing by a lot, but Europe is stagnant.
“I don’t for the life of me understand how you can say things will get better if we join the single market and the customs union because we’re already growing more quickly than the three biggest economies.”
Lib Dem Josh Babarinde had called for closer ties with the EU earlier in the show.
He said: “I was on the protests, I did not want to leave the EU, I voted to remain, and I want to see us at the heart of Europe again.
“Why is that? There are many reasons, but a key one is an economic reason. Our economy has been flatlining for years, and so many of our businesses used to have thriving trade with EU countries, but now just struggle; there are so many barriers in place.
“A way that we can get our hands back on that cash that is in the European market is by cutting through those barriers.”