Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart has declared himself “embarrassed” to be British amid the ongoing Brexit saga, describing the country’s democratic vote to leave the European Union in 2016 as a “disgrace.”
Appearing before an audience in Paris while promoting the new series Star Trek: Picard at a Comic-Con event, Stewart described his visit to France as “very, very bitter experience in many respects.”
“For the last 35 years, I have been so proud to belong to a country that was part of the European Union,” Stewart said. “And I am embarrassed to stand here in front of you, representing a country that is seeking to break that invaluable connection.”
The 79-year-old actor then went on to claim, without evidence, that a majority of Brits now want to remain within the supranational bloc after he recently participated in a mass anti-Brexit demonstration in London.
“I want you to know that well more than half of the population of the United Kingdom wants to stay in the European Union,” Stewart said. “The Berlin Wall came down. The Soviet Union ended its dominance and control over so many nations. Apartheid was ended in South Africa. The Good Friday Agreement brought together [both] Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”
“The European Union is all part of that movement, and it is a disgrace that individuals in my country are attempting to separate it,” he explained.
In February, Stewart admitted to the Press Association that he was “alarmed, concerned and scared” about the impact of Britain leaving the European Union.
“I am very alarmed, concerned, not to say actually scared of what is actually going to come out of this,” he said at the time. “I am an optimist and always have been by nature, things will get better — but before they do it could get very very much worse and it concerns me that so many people seem not to be factoring that into this vote.”
In 2017, Stewart also waded in on American politics, revealing that he had applied for U.S. citizenship so he can help fight against President Donald Trump.
“I’m not a [U.S.] citizen. However, there is, maybe it’s the only good thing, as the result of this election: I am now applying for citizenship. Because I want to be an American too,” he said during an appearance on ABC’s The View. “All of my friends in Washington said, ‘There is one thing you can do. Fight, fight, oppose, oppose.'”
In the run-up to the 2016 election, the X-Men star claimed to have paid one individual five dollars to not vote for Trump, making him guilty of a minor form of electoral fraud.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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