Lord Mandelson has defended plans to sabotage Brexit, saying voters were misled during the referendum campaign, and promising that mass immigration will continue whether Britain leaves the European Union (EU) or not.
“I think many people who voted to leave who want to hear their voices heard again”, Mandelson told Andrew Marr on the journalist’s BBC show Sunday morning.
Informed by Marr that support for Remain is “moving backwards not forwards”, who noted the 48 per cent who backed continued membership of the block has shrunk to 42 per cent, the former Labour business minister claimed Leave voters are “having collywobbles” over the prospect of exiting the single market.
“And that needs to be reflected by Parliament”, Mandelson added, speaking of plans by Europhile peers to make amendments to the Brexit Bill this week in an attempt to keep Britain chained to the EU.
Mandelson, appointed to the European Commission after being forced to resign from government twice, is one of more than 20 peers expected force changes to the bill who are still earning tens of thousands of pounds from Brussels.
The former Cabinet minister — who in 2014 admitted Labour “sent out search parties for immigrants” when in power — said Leave campaigners misled voters and that a post-Brexit Britain would see less trade at higher cost and mass immigration continue unabated.
Backing former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s call for Europhiles to “rise up” against Brexit, Mandelson urged Remain-supporters to put pressure on their MPs to halt the process and to join and donate money to Open Britain, a group determined to keep the UK tied to Brussels.
On Sunday the pressure group’s co-executive director James McGrory echoed the Labour Lord’s claims and voiced more support for mass migration.
Speaking for Open Britain, he claimed that “cutting down on immigration too hard would leave Britain worse off”, declaring: “And the vast majority of immigrants to Britain work hard, pay their taxes, and contribute to our economy and our National Health Service.
While migrants add to a country’s GDP, due to increased demand, Migration Watch UK has calculated that EU migrants cost taxpayers £1 billion in 2014/15 while non-EU migrants strained the country’s finances by £16 billion that year.
This, the report said, is because only households with a gross annual income of more than £35,000 are net contributors to the UK’s Treasury. Director of research at the Centre for Migration Studies, Dr Joseph Chamie, described economic growth driven by mass migration as a “Ponzi scheme” which boosts companies’ profits at the expense of quality of life and the environment.
“The underlying strategy of Ponzi demography is to privatise the profits and socialise the costs incurred from increased population growth,” the demographer, who directed the United Nations Population Division for 12 years, wrote.
With “Ponzi demography”, which he describes as being an unsustainable system, Chamie states that companies enjoy the profits of a larger population while the general public is left to pick up the tab for mounting costs of education, healthcare, housing, and crime.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.