While the Remain side attacks Daniel Hannan’s scattergun vision in his interview on Sky News this morning, there has been no reaction at all to Hannan’s extraordinary comments regarding his Brexit position, made earlier in the day on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Clearly, the Remain side are keen not to draw attention to the fact that Hannan isn’t a Leaver at all, but a Remainer who wants reform, not Brexit. Who could blame them?
Each time this blog has explained Hannan’s contradictory position, that he does not want Brexit but would prefer to see Britain remain in a ‘reformed’ EU, we have been derided and abused by various people on Twitter who reject the assertion and evidence out of hand. So here is a little more for them. Maybe some of them will finally see the light.
Below is a transcript of the opening exchange at 7:36ambetween Sarah Montague and Hannan on Today, which can be heard in full at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070h6ws starting approx. 1:36:00 in:
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Sarah Montague:
I mean I suppose it would be true to say that there is nothing that he can come up with today that would satisfy you. You want out whatever, don’t you?
Daniel Hannan:
No.
I mean I wanted out as a means to an end. I don’t know anyone who wants Brexit for the sake of it.
We only see it as the means to the end of a more prosperous and freer and more democratic Britain. And I had hoped that that might have been something we could have done through an amicable renegotiation.
But it’s now clear that we didn’t ask for any of the fundamental changes in our status that could have left the UK with a common market rather than a common government type deal. […]
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Many people want Brexit for the sake of it, because the EU is anti-democratic and undermines our country’s place and voice in the world. Yet he claims to know none of them. Seriously?
What Hannan is pushing is the Vote Leave agenda. Push for an out vote only as a means to an end, to leverage a different renegotiation that sees Britain remain in the EU. It is no different from the line the Vote Leave team had in their guise of Business for Britain, reform not Brexit.
Perhaps now more people will realise that Hannan, and the company of which he is a director, Vote Leave Ltd, are pursuing a different agenda to those of us who want to leave the EU as a matter of democratic principle.
They cannot be trusted, and when they talk about Brexit solutions they should not be listened to.
