Tory MPs call for Lord Adonis to be sacked after he compares Brexit to Nazi appeasement
2 min read
Conservative MPs have called for Lord Adonis to be sacked as a government adviser after he said Brexit could be as big a mistake as the appeasement of Adolf Hitler.
The former Labour Cabinet minister also warned that quitting the EU could lead to "a serious relative decline in our living standards compared with France and Germany".
His comments, made in an interview with The House magazine, were first revealed by PoliticsHome yesterday.
He said: "My language is usually pretty subdued in politics but anyone with a historical sense – and I’m a historian – recognises that leaving the economic institutions of the European Union, which have guided our destiny as a trading nation for half a century, is a very big step and the importance can’t be over-emphasised.
"To my mind, it’s as big a step that we’re taking as a country as decolonisation in the 1950s and 60s and appeasement in the 1930s. We got it right on decolonisation; we got it wrong on appeasement and I think we’re in serious danger of getting it wrong in the way that we leave the EU."
But Brexit-backing Tories reacted angrily to the remarks, and said he should be axed as chairman of the Government's national infrastructure commission.
Iain Duncan Smith told The Sun: “I am astonished and appalled that someone who considers himself to be intelligent should have selected such a comparison given all the appalling violence and death that Hitler visited on Europe and the rest of the world. I find his comments deeply offensive, as I believe most of the British people will too.”
Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, said: "Of course he should be removed from any advisory role to government. He doesn’t really believe in democracy – just like Hitler."
Wellingborough MP Peter Bone said: "He should be fired."
Lord Adonis was Transport Secretary under Gordon Brown and also served on Tony Blair's frontbench. He was appointed to his government advisory role by then Chancellor George Osborne in 2015.
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