{"id":580035,"date":"2025-11-19T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/580035\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T08:30:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:30:15","slug":"former-tory-pm-calls-brexit-an-act-of-collective-folly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/580035\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tory PM Calls Brexit An Act Of Collective Folly"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Conservative<\/a> prime minister has branded Brexit<\/a> \u201can act of collective folly\u201d in a bitter attack on the UK\u2019s decision to leave the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Major<\/a> said Britain\u2019s \u201cenemies celebrated and our friends despaired\u201d at the result of the 2016 referendum.<\/p>\n

He accused those who campaigned to leave, which included senior Tories like Boris Johnson<\/a> and Michael Gove, of spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d to persuade voters not to stay in the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt left our country poorer, weaker and divorced from the richest free trade market that history has ever seen,\u201d Major said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational interest was brushed aside by false hopes and promises. False hopes and promises that even a cabinet dominated by frontline Brexit enthusiasts was unable to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former PM, who led the UK between 1990 and 1997, said the damage caused by quitting the EU \u201chas become only too apparent\u201d as he defended the Remain campaign, which was branded \u201cProject Fear\u201d by its opponents.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe nation saw Project Fear become Project Reality very easily. It\u2019s no consolation that the majority of the public now overwhelmingly recognises that it was misled in their moments of triumph.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrexiteers predicted other countries would follow their lead and leave the European Union. None have. All saw only too clearly that Brexit was packed with disadvantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cFar from others leaving the European Union, as we meet, nine further nations now wish to join the European Union, which is an apt comment on how the world saw Britain\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major added: \u201cThe United Kingdom once revelled, within the memory of everyone present in this room, in being a leading member of the European Union, with half a billion citizens and the undoubted first ally of the United States, the world\u2019s most eminent superpower.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we know we are neither, and so does the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments come as Rachel Reeves prepares to blame the economic impact of Brexit<\/a> for the need to put up taxes and cut spending in next week\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, polling now shows<\/a> that most Brits believe the UK economy has got worse since the country left the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Conservative prime minister has branded Brexit \u201can act of collective folly\u201d in a bitter attack on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,113989,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-580035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-john-major","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115575431172171457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}