UK MPs May Deliver a No-Deal Brexit 'Through Sheer Incompetence' – Former MEP

EU Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday that the risk of Britain crashing out of the bloc without a deal is at an all-time high. Earlier, European Council President Donald Tusk suggested the United Kingdom should abandon Brexit and remain in the EU.

The news comes as British Prime Minister Theresa May's deal was rejected by the country's parliament. More than two-thirds of lawmakers voted against the proposed agreement, marking the largest defeat in history. 118 votes against the proposal came from May's own Conservative party. Following the defeat, a vote of no-confidence was proposed and held, but May's government managed to survive

Radio Sputnik discussed this and other Brexit-related developments with Nick Griffin, a former member of the European Parliament.

Sputnik: If you had a chance, how would you have voted?

Nick Griffin: Well, I would have… naturally, I am a full-on Brexiteer. Having said so, you'd logically think while they had to vote, you know, to vote against Theresa May. However, the problem here is that May's deal wasn't really a deal.

It would have got us around one-third out of the EU but now it is being rejected. I think that it is highly likely that we will end up with a second referendum. And since the last one, one and a half million Britons have died just from old age and of those probably a million were Brexit voters. A million and a half have come on the electoral roll at the age of 18 and of those, a large majority are Remain voters.

So if there is another referendum we will end up staying in. Personally, I would be inclined to vote for May's almost useless deal because a little bit is better than nothing at all. And we are lined up now to get nothing at all.

Sputnik: Former UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said that a second Brexit referendum would show an even bigger leave majority.

Nick Griffin: I would love to think so, but I fear not. As I said, first there's the demographics… a switch of 2 million voters through death and coming on the electoral roll. So that alone would do the trick. On top of that, the Brexit vote was won by social media, particularly by grassroots, anti-EU workers, working through Facebook. It was absolutely huge.

READ MORE: YouTube Simply Silencing Opinions That Are Not Left-Wing — Britain First Leader

I was involved in an operation. We were reaching… at least we were delivering 17 million pieces of pro-Brexit publicity to Brits every single week in that campaign. And other people were doing the same or similar. So, there was a huge grassroots information campaign going on through Facebook, negating the largely pro-EU mainstream media. And, as I am sure you know since […] all through last year, the voice of the alternatives on social media, especially Facebook, has been silenced.

We have been censored. Virtually all the sites closed down, the algorithms have been changed. You don't reach anyone significantly through social media the way we did 2-3 years ago.

So, the liberal elite have not only stolen the vote from the British people, they have also set about very hard the last two years changing the system to make sure that next time the vote will go differently. You put that combination together — the silencing of the radical anti-Brexit [vote] voice on social media and the demographic change — and I fear that Mr. Farage is wrong.

Sputnik: The last vote showed how divided the British Parliament is on the Brexit agreement. What options are there for Mrs. May now?

Nick Griffin: She is not interested in an option. Theresa May is a remainer. She went to Brussels intent on surrender. She surrendered. There was no negotiation. She wasn't attempting to get anything.

She could have very easily gone to the EU and said: "We will leave. We will pay you no money. We want free trade with you. Every per cent tariff you put on us will stick to per cent on you".

And the moment the German industrial complex realise they are going to lose all their sales of all their cars and all the machine tools in Britain, they would have lent on the German elite who really run the EU these days and we defend a Norway-type deal. So, May could have got that.

READ MORE: UK House Sales Expectations at Almost 20-Year Low Amid Brexit Fears — Survey

That option is still there but she won't take it because she does not want Britain to leave the EU. Virtually, the entire British elite doesn't want Britain to leave the EU and together with the Brussels elite as well they will do everything they can to keep us in.

Sputnik: So, Nick, you agree with Mr. Corbyn's statements? He accused Mrs. May's government of incompetence.

Nick Griffin: Oh, no, I don't. It is not incompetence, it is absolutely deliberate. When you consider this [is] not the first time this has happened: the Irish voted against the EU project, they were made to vote again; the French voted against it, they were made to vote again till they gave the "right" answer; the Dutch voted against it, they were made to vote again until they gave the "right" answer.

And on the Ukraine business, they were simply ignored. And then the Greeks voted against EU austerity and were simply ignored as well. So, the EU elites together with their local public governments have a track record totally ignoring the people. And that is what they are going to do this time. But it is not incompetence, it is entirely deliberate.

Sputnik: Mr. Corbyn has tabled a vote of no confidence after the vote. However, the Labour Party is also deeply divided over the "divorce" deal. Where does this put the British Parliament?

Nick Griffin: To be honest, I don't think anybody knows. There is a possibility of that through… there is a degree of… a massive degree of incompetence in the British elite. So through sheer incompetence, they might end up delivering a no-deal Brexit here by mistake.

But the parliament is so divided, both the main parties are so divided, the public so divided. Really, I don't think anyone knows which is why in the end I think they will use that as an excuse and partly a reason as well to say we have to have a second referendum.

As I say that will go almost certainly for remain and we will simply go back, which is possibly better than the present situation and May's deal whereby we would officially leave the EU.

In fact, we continue to be run by it in every meaningful way. The only thing is we wouldn't be sending any peas to the parliament. And there is just a possibility after these forthcoming elections that it might end up with the parliament, in fact, basically controlled — this is a slim possibility — it might end up with the parliament controlled by basically an anti-Brussels bloc of Poland, Hungary, Italy and so on.

And in that case, you then begin to see the potential for a new political civil war not in a British elite but in Europe, between the parliaments, the elected parliaments on one side and the European Commission, who actually have all the power but who are unelected. And if you get in the end a huge battle between an elected parliament and an unelected executive, there is a reasonably chance the elected parliaments would have their way.

So there is a possibility that Europe could switch from being a liberal elite project to being a rather incoherent populist thing and heading in a different direction. And if that was the case, then actually a large number of pro-Brexit British MPs, if we came back, would potentially add to the possibility of the European Union genuinely being reformed.

I don't think it is likely, so if I had my way, I would still get Britain out tomorrow. But there is that intriguing possibility that Europe may be about to change in a far bigger way than the question of whether Britain leaves or stays.

Sputnik: Nick, how high are the chances that we may see a no-deal Brexit scenario or no Brexit at all?

Nick Griffin: I think the no-deal Brexit scenario is extremely unlikely. That would be the result of sheer incompetence and confusion, so pick a possibility with the British elite. But the "not leaving at all" is what the vast majority of parliament wanted in the first place.

It was the vast majority of the media wanted in the first place, the mainstream media. And of course, it is what the European Union people, the bosses in Brussels want as well. So, when you put all those forces together, when you have got the British population, which is frankly split down the middle, then the odds of that with political power and media power in favour of remain means that is what we will end up with. Which will, you know, I think that is very clever and if we will end up in the EU.

As I say what kind of EU we are ending up in now becomes perhaps questionable but long-term they are going to tell the surviving 16 million Brexit voters and a significant number of young people coming on the role, who understand their parents and their grandparents, voted for Brexit and were robbed of that decision.

It is going to leave 16-17 million people and a large majority of the white working class in Britain feeling utterly disgusted with their ruling elite, understanding that the only purpose that the elite has for them is for their taxes and for their sons and daughters for their crazed oversees adventures.

READ MORE: UK PM Confirms Plan to Present New Brexit Deal on Monday

And it is going to poison the well of British politics for at least a generation with a very large number of people saying "well, since you don't listen to me, I am not going to vote, I am not interested." And those people become potentially available for near-radical politics, which in some ways can be good because Britain needs radical change, but is also very dangerous and is very tragic that it has come to this in a country which, for all the ills as well as the goods, invented parliament, the democratic system. And what the elite is doing, has done over the last two years and is doing now, is really crushing that under a giant bulldozer.

Sputnik: In your opinion, should political issues of vital importance, the issue of gaining independence or membership in their lines be decided in public referendums or should people with expertise, that as politicians, address these issues? And I ask you because in 2016 the people have spoken, they said: "we want to leave". And now we see reports that more and more people want to hold a second referendum and we see polls which show that a majority of Brits now want to remain in the European Union.

Nick Griffin: If politics was run by politicians who were experts then there would be lots to be said for leaving it in the hands of the representative experts. But the politicians these days are not experts, they are puppets of various vested interest and of interest of global capitalism.

So, they are never going to do a decent job for the ordinary people, they are committed to globalism, internationalism, which automatically means that they will sacrifice their own people for the benefit of their paymasters, basically. Under those circumstances, we are better off with referenda, preferably citizens' initiative referenda, so that it comes from the people, not from the political elite.

The Swiss system has worked very well for Switzerland. I know that the "yellow jackets" in France are demanding the same thing. I think there we be more and more demands for that in Britain and other western countries as well. And while it wouldn't be perfect, it would undoubtedly be a better system than we have at present, where a tiny and totally unrepresentative elite makes all the decisions on behalf of the super-rich.

Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.