{"id":581764,"date":"2025-11-20T03:59:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581764\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T03:59:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:59:28","slug":"former-tory-pm-slams-brexit-as-an-act-of-collective-folly-in-outspoken-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581764\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tory PM slams Brexit as &#8216;an act of collective folly&#8217; in outspoken attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">\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<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/52446618335_6c658c71f5_o-800x450.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-post-image\" alt=\"Protests at a Rejoin EU demonstration\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>A former Tory leader has slammed Brexit as an \u2018act of collective folly\u2019 in what amounts to an outspoken attack on his party after its decision to hold a referendum to leave the EU.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John Major said Britain\u2019s \u201cenemies celebrated and our friends despaired\u201d at the result of the 2016 referendum.<\/p>\n<p>His comments come as the economic harm caused by Brexit becomes increasingly clear. Earlier this week, a new study based on nearly a decade of data, found that Brexit had severely damaged the UK economy.<\/p>\n<p>According to the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER), which has based its findings on a decade of data since the referendum, the UK\u2019s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) had fallen by as much as 8% from where it should be since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>And according to new data released by the economists at Stanford University, the Bank of England, and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has found that business investment loss by this year could be \u00a3275 billion or \u00a3400 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Major accused senior Tories such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove of \u2018spreading misinformation\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The Huffpost reports Major as saying: \u201cIt left our country poorer, weaker and divorced from the richest free trade market that history has ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>He added: \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<p>\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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nLeft Foot Forward doesn&#8217;t have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you. &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nYou can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/leftfootforward.org\/donate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Donate today <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNational interest was brushed aside by false hopes and promises. False hopes and promises that even a cabinet&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-581764","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-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115580029903437286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581764","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=581764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}