Boris Johnson has been mocked for his attempt to explain Brexit in a French radio interview, with critics describing his comments as “pure gibberish.”
On Have I Got News For You, Ian Hislop lampooned the former prime minister’s interview on France Inter. Johnson, who led the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, struggled to clearly articulate his thoughts on the topic, resulting in a muddled and confusing explanation.
Johnson’s confusing Brexit explanation
During the interview, Johnson made several baffling statements as he tried to justify Brexit. “There’s an idea of constitutional freedom for the United Kingdom. And, I recount the struggle for Brexit [in Unleashed],” he said, though it was unclear exactly what he meant.
He then moved on to discuss the benefits of Brexit, claiming, “The freedom to do things differently. In particular, you see – We forget all this now because it was two or three years ago but when we had the pandemic, thanks to Brexit we had the chance to do the vaccinations in England much earlier.”
Fact check: the vaccine rollout claim
The claim that Brexit allowed the UK to roll out vaccines more quickly has been widely debunked. In fact, the UK had the ability to regulate its vaccine programme independently of the EU long before Brexit, dating back to 2012. This was the same year that London hosted the Olympics, an event which Johnson, as mayor, had little involvement in, despite his frequent references to it.
Johnson’s attempt at explaining Brexit in this interview is just another example of his usual bumbling rhetoric, leaving listeners confused and sceptical of his arguments.
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