‘The final torpedo’: jeers as UK MP compares Theresa May’s Brexit failure to Britain’s wartime loss of Singapore
- Conservative politician Crispin Blunt is slammed for being ‘obsessed with the old empire’ after referring to ‘shameful surrender’ by British in 1942
- One commentator said Brexit supporters ‘need to understand the age when a very British form of white supremacy ruled the waves ain’t coming back’
Some members of Britain’s Conservative Party who support Brexit have been accused of living in the colonial past and holding jingoist instincts that could upset potential trade partners, right as the country struggles to find a way out of the European Union and into new trade deals.
Britain’s pride in its wartime victories has come under scrutiny in the past, but this time it was a senior Conservative politician comparing Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to solve Brexit to a military loss that caused controversy.
Crispin Blunt, a former minister and strong supporter of the UK leaving the European Union even without an agreement, said May “has just put the final torpedo into her own deal and any real prospect of Brexit, and that her statement will represent the most shameful surrender by a British leader since Singapore in 1942”.
His comment was greeted with jeers in parliament, and immediate derision on social media.