Sir Richard Branson has said that Britain will never leave the European Union because Brexit voters are ‘dying off’.
The tycoon said that he believed that there would be a second referendum and that the British people would ‘absolutely’ vote Remain.
Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTE, the billionaire said Brexit was the ‘saddest thing’ that ever happened to ‘what was Great Britain’.
The 67-year-old told the radio station: ‘The older generation is dying off. So whether there’s a second referendum before Brexit happens – I’m sure the Tory party will do their best not to allow that to happen – but I think within five years there will be a government in power in Britain that will ask Europe for a chance to let Britain re-enter.
Sir Richard Branson has said that Britain will never leave the European Union because Brexit voters are ‘dying off’
‘Because there will be so many young people who will be a little bit older by then, and so many of the older grandparents who voted for Brexit will have died off, I think that Britain will become part of Europe again.’
During the interview yesterday, he said that his heart sank when Britain decided to leave the European Union last year.
‘I think it was the saddest thing that has ever happened to Europe and the saddest thing that’s ever happened to what was Great Britain and it was as if the older group of British people took a gun in their hand and just shot it at their seat,’ he said.
The billionaire’s comments come after former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg also said there should be a second referendum because Leave voters are dying off.
Sir Richard said the British people were ‘misled horribly by one or two politicians’, naming Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
There was a ‘ghastly misrepresentation of reality. A picture was painted that was completely unreal,’ he added.
Nick Clegg also said there should be a second referendum because Leave voters are dying off
‘Britain was doing really well before the Brexit announcement. Since the Brexit announcement, we’ve dropped to the bottom of all European countries as far as growth is going to happen and this is just a taste of what’s going to happen.’
He added that it was a ‘pity’ that time, energy and money was being wasted on Brexit, adding that Britain was going to ‘go on sliding down and that’s very sad’.
‘It’s just a pity that all this time and energy and money and effort is all being spent on such a wasteful thing as Brexit which could be spent on so many more positive things and I think Britain is just going to go on sliding down and down and down and that’s very sad.’
He said that as the older generation died off, younger people would replace them as voters, adding: ‘Young people overwhelmingly want to be part of Europe, they want to be able to live in 28 countries they want to be able to work in 28 countries, they want to be able to travel to 28 countries without having to have passports everywhere.
‘They are Europeans. They want to be able to embrace Europe.’
Sir Richard has previously called for a second referendum to give Britain a chance to cast its votes again.
Following the vote, the Virgin founder urged Parliament to take a second look at the result, after saying he was deeply concerned about Brexit.
Virgin Group pulled the plug on the acquisition of a UK firm employing 3,000 staff after the results were announced.
Following the Brexit vote, Sir Richard sold off a multimillion-pound major stake in Virgin Atlantic to Air France-KLM
Earlier this month, the tycoon, whose fortune is estimated at £3.8billion by Forbes, revealed that Brexit has cost his business ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
Following the vote, he sold off a multimillion-pound major stake in Virgin Atlantic to Air France-KLM.
He is partly-funding a group to fight Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The Virgin founder runs an empire which includes airlines and record stores under his Virgin brand, and owns a Caribbean island.
In March 2000, Sir Richard was knighted at Buckingham Palace for ‘services to entrepreneurship’.
During yesterday’s interview, he also spoke about being caught up in one of the most horrific hurricanes in history on his Necker island last month.
‘It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off,’ he said. He also spoke about the environment, education and Brexit and Obama visiting his island.