A woman broke down on live television as she described the emotional impact that Brexit has had on her life.
"We're going to struggle to put food on our table because a few of you don't like foreigners."
— Jeremy Vine On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) January 3, 2019
We got an emotional call from a mum this morning, who reckons her family is going to suffer because of Brexit. @TheJeremyVine | @TheRealNihal | #Brexit | #jeremyvine pic.twitter.com/UuaFqPnMvw
She had called in to the Channel 5 show Jeremy Vine on 5 to take part in a discussion with the host and fellow presenter Lowri Turner.
The woman, whose name was not given, told the programme that her husband’s construction business was now in trouble because of a lack of labour, while she herself faced the prospect of moving to Ireland, because her own banking job had been transferred to Dublin.
‘Brexit will ruin us,’ she said. ‘We’re losing our jobs – thousands of jobs have gone overseas to Frankfurt or Dublin. The banks are moving abroad to protect themselves, because of Brexit. That is a fact.’
She added: ‘My husband’s building company is going to be in trouble, as are many others, because there is a severe lack of labour here. I’m sorry, this really upsets me.’
The caller said her husband’s firm has lost 50% of its workforce as a result of Brexit. She added: ‘People from our building company have left because they don’t like the environment. The Romanians don’t want to be here because they’d rather be in Portugal or Spain where the people are nicer, they think.’
She added: ‘We’re going to struggle to put food on our table because a few of you don’t like foreigners. I am patriotic, I love my country and I don’t know why we’re ruining it.
‘I don’t know why we want economic hardship. I don’t know why I can’t give the best to my children – the life I want them to have.’
The woman began the call by telling the presenters: ‘I’m in the process of applying for an Irish passport. I’ll have to work in Dublin. My job in a bank no longer exists. It’s moved to Dublin.’
She responded to suggestions from Lowri Turner that people seeking passports for other countries were being unpatriotic. The woman said: ‘The fact that Lowri thinks we’re so unpatriotic – I mean it disgusts me because it just shows that people in the media bubble have no idea the effect that this is having on us.’
The presenter defended herself, and said: ‘Nobody wants businesses to go down but we live in a free market economy, anything could happen. We could have another recession.’