Following the revelations by the BBC showing European Council President Donald Tusk calling the idea of a Brexit “stupid” during private conversations with the father of Brexit, former PM David Cameron, Brexiteers are now demanding lip readers go over the material to verify those revelations.
Boris Johnson was first to twitter his outrage at Tusk’s qualification of the, at the time, future Brexit referendum in the BBC documentary: “As I said during my speech in Staffordshire, we will find a way out of this mess, because both the UK and the EU are being led by highly intelligent people. Tusk’s statement is therefore literally unbelievable and highly offensive, and I call for a public inquiry of qualified lip readers into the matter.”
In the same breath, Johnson disowned his referral to the migration of eighty million Turks adhering to the EU during the Leave Campaign.
Following the MP’s tweet, the Leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, has called upon the same lip readers that analysed Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged “stupid woman” quote during PMQs more than a month ago.
In addition, she reiterated her vocal wish for Parliament taking back control by backing Jacob Rees-Mogg’s call on government to close down Parliament in order to block a free vote of MPs on different amendments to the government´s motion.
Wishful thinking
It has cross-party appeal. Labour´s Kate Hoey has joined the call for lip readers to investigate Tusk´s utterance.
“The will of the people is never stupid,” she declared.
“What is stupid is this scaremongering about the Irish border. If the Irish don’t wish it, if we don’t wish it, if the EU doesn’t wish, why should there be one?”, renewing her call for the Irish to pay for the border infrastructure “if they wish it”.
During yesterday’s debate in the Commons, PM Theresa May has called on the European Council President to retract what he has said.
She has also responded to MP’s questions concerning future global trade deals: “Some days ago I have lunched with New Zealand’s PM. They are very favourable to the prospect of shipping their beef all around the world. This shows what a truly global Britain can achieve while maintaining the highest environmental and labour standards.”
She also reconfirmed that Britain will ship itself to the other side of the planet to replace our greatest ally, the USA, in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, whilst we will remain a part of Europe, whilst leaving the EU, whilst staying closely aligned to it.”
Tusk himself reacted to these calls laconically by declaring: “What I said is precisely that: stupid. Want me to spell it out? S-T-U-P-I-D. Do the British want any legal clarification of that?”
The otherwise austere Michel Barnier, leading the negotiations for the EU, has posted a video on the internet to sum up his opinion into the matter.
