UKIP’s former Twickenham parliamentary candidate, Barry Edwards, has applauded ‘patriot’ Boris Johnson’s recent comments supporting the campaign for Britain’s to leave the EU.
With just over three months to go until the polling booths open for the June 23 ‘Brexit or Bremain’ vote, Mr Edwards is cautious about the Leave campaign’s prospects.
He said: “I’m very worried but I’m hopeful, and if we do manage to get over the line it will be a massive transition.
“If we don’t leave the EU it could be the most disastrous thing ever to happen to the UK.”
Although David Cameron promised an EU referendum as part of his election manifesto he has firmly backed the Remain campaign.
Westminster was shocked when Mayor of London Boris Johnson backed the Leave campaign, commentators cited his political ambition to secure back bench Tory support for a future leadership campaign.
Responding Mr Johnson’s anti-EU speech last week, Mr Edwards said: “I think obviously he can smell the blood of Cameron but I think that’s only 30% of it.
“I think for the other 70% he’s a patriot, who believes in Churchill’s spirit of ‘we will not be made slaves’.
“For the populist Conservative in the ‘In’ club, [the EU] is just a big market for all their mates – it’s little wonder that traditional Conservatives come out to try and save our country.”
Mr Edwards is less convinced by the Eurosceptic credentials of the man who wants to succeed him, Zac Goldsmith.
“I’m not convinced by Zac Goldsmith. I know he’s said he’s in the Out camp but I think he’s only doing it to save face over the whole Heathrow thing,” said Mr Edwards.
The ‘whole Heathrow thing’ refers to the Conservative Richmond Park MP’s climbdown over threats to quit parliament in the event of David Cameron giving the go-ahead for a third Heathrow runway.
“Boris Johnson can obviously smell the blood of Cameron.”
As for the politicians in the Remain camp, Mr Edwards, who jumped ship from the Tories to join UKIP in 2012, said: “If you conspire with other countries to take over your government, that’s treason.
“Well, that’s what pro-EU campaigners are doing. I call it an invasion. Germany are using the EU to try to conquer Europe again.”
He is forthright on his dissatisfaction with the EU, saying it the various treaties have ‘done over’ its members as it heads towards ‘full integration’ and calling it ‘the new USSR’.
Mr Edwards echoed concerns touted by the Leave campaign, that the continued expansion of the EU is unsustainable and the further devolution of powers to Brussels with result in the federalisation of Europe.
He explained: “It’s the same as if you were living in a three-bedroom house, and the government forces you to have someone from another country come to stay in your spare bedroom. Now that’s inconvenient, because you haven’t a spare bedroom any more.
“But then they force you to have another, and more and more, until your kitchen is so full of people living in it that you can’t even make a sandwich.
“If you’ve got a house there’s a limit to how many it can hold, and it’s the same here.”
“Every party has racists. I was in the Conservative party for years and I came across lots of people with unpleasant views there.”
Addressing recent comments from French president Francois Hollande suggesting the Calais Jungle would be moved to Dover should Britain leave the EU, he said: “How does he think he will manage that? We’ve got a navy, we’ve got control of our borders, no-one else.”
Mr Edwards cited that an increased population would lead to increased debt, and an ever-increasing strain on resources, which he said people move to Britain to exploit.
As a former Twickenham MP candidate, where he won 3,069 votes in last May’s general election, he used the constituency to highlight population problems.
He claimed that at the current growth rate the population there is set to double in 70 years, putting the areas famous green spaces and parks at risk of development to accommodate ‘central London levels’ of population density.
Defending his party against claims of racism, he said: “Every party has racists. I was in the Conservative party for years and I came across lots of people with unpleasant views there.
“The EU is discriminating against non-EU immigrants, that is racism. We want a fair system that does not discriminate.
“It’s sad, but our country is like a lifeboat. And at some point, someone has to say: no more.
“Anyone that doesn’t vote UKIP is accepting six million people in the next 25 years.”
“Britain has liberated Europe on two occasions in the past, in WWI and WWII. We gave everything back, we liberated them.”
Mr Edwards was assured about the UK’s future should we leave the EU – stating that the good relations with Commonwealth countries means Britain would still have a strong and influential presence on the world stage.
“Britain has liberated Europe on two occasions in the past, in World War I and at the end of World War Two. We gave everything back, we liberated them. And the EU should realise that and listen to Britain a bit more,” he said.
“As for the good things about the EU, there are a few conveniences which it would be nice to keep. But these are all superficial, and the main thing is our sovereignty.”
Despite more than a third of companies in the FTSE 100 signing a letter declaring that a Brexit would threaten UK investment and potential job losses, Mr Edwards criticised the business community’s fears.
“Businesses are only signing up to the Remain campaign for cheaper labour — that’s the only reason. It’s a no-brainer for them,” he said.
“People aren’t explaining why businesses really think it’s profitable. It’s because it’s a sweatshop for them.
“I want to see an alternative EU called the European Free Trade Area. First Hungary will join, by the sounds of what they’ve been saying lately, and others will follow.”
Featured picture courtesy of Steve McCubbin, with thanks
