Britain to become ‘second rate’ nation after Brexit says Donald Tusk

‘Don’t give up’, Donald Tusk tells Remainers as he warns Britain risks becoming a ‘second rate’ nation in the world after Brexit

  • Britain will lose influence in the world after it leaves the EU, Donald Tusk said
  • European Council President said UK risks being ‘second-rate’ nation in the world
  • He issued call to people campaigning to overturn the referendum not to give up

Donald Tusk intervened in the General Election last night by telling Remainers: ‘Don’t give up.’ 

The outgoing EU Council chief issued his message of solidarity during a speech in Bruges about the philosopher Hannah Arendt.

Openly admitting that his intervention was unconventional, he told an audience of students: ‘I want to tell you something I wouldn’t have dared to say a few months ago, as I could be fired for being too frank.

‘Second rate’: Tusk warned Britain risks losing influence in the world after Brexit is complete

‘The UK election takes place in one month. Can things still be turned around? Hannah Arendt taught that things become irreversible only when people start to think so. So the only words that come to my mind today are simply – don’t give up.’

He said the decision to leave the European Union would see Britain become a ‘second-rate player’ in the world.

‘I’ve heard repeatedly from Brexiteers that they wanted to leave the EU to make the UK global again,’ he added.

‘You could hear in these voices a longing for the Empire. But the reality is exactly the opposite. Only as part of a united Europe can the UK play a global role … and the world knows it.

‘I have heard the same in India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa, that after its departure the UK will become an outsider, a second-rate player, while the main battlefield will be occupied by China, the US and the EU.’

Brexit backers say the UK – the world’s fifth largest economy – will achieve a new global status unshackled from EU rules and closer to the United States.

But Tusk said only a united Europe could confront an assertive China and play an effective global role.

Leaving the EU: Donald Tusk himself stands down from his role in just over two weeks time

Leaving the EU: Donald Tusk himself stands down from his role in just over two weeks time

Tusk has repeatedly voiced a wish for Britain to change its mind and stay in the EU. The former Polish prime minister will step down from his post on December 1, handing over to former Belgian prime minister Charles Michel.

Many Western diplomats believe Britain after Brexit must be careful not alienate itself from other friendly countries who have a more multilateral approach to world politics than Trump.

”Why are they doing this?’ – I was asked this regretful question everywhere I went’, Tusk said. ‘One of my English friends is probably right when he says with melancholy that Brexit is the real end of the British Empire.’

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