Brexit Party MEP Anne Widdecombe has warned Eurocrats to “learn the lessons” from Brexit and scale back on federalism, or else the European Union will not survive.
Addressing fellow MEPs and senior EU bureaucrats in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, Ms Widdecombe said: “The European Union started with six countries. The vision then was that it would be a loose alliance of sovereign nations in a trading agreement with some sort of political co-operation with a totally noble ideal that that would somehow promote peace.
“If that had remained… and was still the vision, I venture to say that I don’t believe that Britain would now be leaving.
“That didn’t happen. Co-operation morphed into domination. Sovereignty morphed into a superstate. That is why Britain is going.”
While alluding to fears from France and Germany that a Brexit Britain diverging from EU rules would become a regional competitor, the former Conservative MP made a prediction: “I believe when we make a big success of being a competitor on your doorstep, others will follow us.
“If you want a future for the European Union, learn the lessons of what has happened in the UK.”
The MEP echoed the sentiments of party leader Nigel Farage, who celebrated the United Kingdom “leaving this prison of nations” in his speech to the European Parliament last month.
In May 2019, all 28 member-states held European Parliament elections, with new senior figures also being appointed in the EU’s other branches of government such as the European Council and European Commission. Most notably, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was replaced by Angela Merkel’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen.
Mr Farage warned in the following July that under the leadership of von der Leyen, the EU would “take control of every single aspect” Europeans’ lives.
He said of the former German defence minister: “She wants to build a centralised, undemocratic, updated form of Communism where nation state parliaments will cease to have any relevance at all.”