Vince Cable has suggested that Brexit voters were driven by ‘nostalgia’ for a world in which ‘faces were white’.
The Liberal Democrat leader told his party’s spring conference that many older voters wanted ‘a world where passports were blue, faces were white and the map was coloured imperial pink’.
A Brexit deal in which the EU dictated the terms of the UK’s departure would ‘create the sense of victimhood Brexiteers crave,’ he said.
In his keynote speech to the conference in Southport, Sir Vince renewed his call for a second referendum and said the divide opened up by the June 2016 vote had left the country mired in a ‘protracted, non-violent civil war’.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has suggested that Brexit voters were driven by ‘nostalgia’ for a world in which ‘faces were white’
The former Cabinet minister said the ‘toxic’ fall-out of the Brexit referendum was fuelling the rise of the populist right in Britain.
He said: ‘I confess that my own initial reaction to the referendum was to think that maybe there was little choice but to pursue Brexit.
‘What changed my mind was the evidence that Brexit had overwhelmingly been the choice of the older generation.’
The campaign group Leave.EU criticised Mr Cable’s comments, saying his ‘insulting assumption’ did not explain why the UK had voted to leave a union of ‘predominantly white European nations.’
Tory MP James Cleverly said it was prejudiced to say that the referendum result was driven by ‘casual racism’.
‘It certainly wasn’t the reason I voted for Brexit,’ he said, according to City AM.
Fellow pro-Brexit MP John Redwood said the Lib Dem leader’s remarks were ‘complete nonsense.’
The Lib Dem leader said it was clear the EU would end up dictating the terms as the UK government was divided over what it wanted to achieve.
‘This will, in turn, create the sense of victimhood Brexiteers crave – being under the European yoke,’ he said.
The former Cabinet minister said the ‘toxic’ fall-out of the Brexit referendum was fuelling the rise of the populist right in Britain
‘I would go so far as to say Britain is now mired in a protracted, non-violent civil war.
‘Allied to the poisonous rhetoric about ‘traitors’ and ‘saboteurs’, and what Theresa May calls ‘citizens of nowhere’, we have a toxic brew which fuels the populist right.
‘It was never a good idea to leave the EU. To leave it now borders on extreme recklessness.’
He said that he wanted to see his party follow the example of the Canadian Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau to build to lead a ‘new groundswell for political renewal’.
‘The Canadian liberals engaged all their registered supporters – their voters – as well as their members in leadership elections and candidate selection. They became a new party; a movement,’ he said.
‘Building on our own traditions, we must address how we in the Liberal Democrats can become a movement for those who are alienated by the Conservatives and Labour.
‘So as a party I want us to think big. To be as radical and forward-looking with our ambitions for the party as we are with our ideas and our policies.’