Campaigners criticise ‘embarrassing’ and ‘arrogant’ prime minister at People’s Vote rally

People's Vote campaigners in Edinburgh. Photograph: People's Vote. - Credit: Archant

Campaigners have slammed the ’embarrassing’ and ‘arrogant’ prime minister at the latest People’s Vote rally as Boris Johnson met with European leaders.

Emmanuel Macron, left, talks to Boris Johnson during their meeting at the Elysee Palace. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP) – Credit: AP

Alastair Campbell said Boris Johnson was embarrassing the country with his behaviour towards European leaders.

He said that Johnson has been revealed to be a leader who does not know what he wants from his Brexit negotiations, after hearing “very, very awkward truths” from the leaders of France and Germany.

He told PA that the furore over the photograph of Johnson with his feet on Macron’s table “takes away attention from what Angela Merkel did yesterday and what president Macron did today in pointing out some very, very awkward truths about Johnson’s so-called negotiating position.”

Campbell said that Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement was “hard-fought on both sides” and that the new prime minister was “delusional” to think EU leaders would offer the UK a new deal.

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Labour MP Jess Phillips told the People’s Vote rally that if opposing Brexit costs her her seat, she would gladly sacrifice it to protect her constituents’ jobs.

Accusing Johnson of not caring if Brexit plunges the country into recession and costs jobs, Phillips hit out at people criticising her for opposing Brexit.

She added: “It is not treachery to care about those people’s jobs, their homes, their hospitals.

“It is not treachery to care about them having enough to eat, that the medicines they need will be delivered as it always has been.

“I am not a traitor for caring about the people where I live and if it costs me my job because I represent a ‘Leave’ constituency, their jobs matter much more to me than mine.

“Doing the right thing sometimes comes at a cost and Boris Johnson wouldn’t have the first idea about doing the right thing, because the right thing for him is whatever is best for Boris Johnson, not for you or your families.”

Phillips said: “The greatest lie that Boris Johnson has told – and let’s face it, there’s quite a hit parade of them, especially if you were married to him – is that on October 31, if we leave, it will be done.

“But if we leave with a no-deal on October 31, that isn’t the end of Brexit.”

Describing the prime minister as a “man-baby”, she said: “He just wants to look a bit tough and say I don’t care, we’ll leave no matter what.”

In front of a crowd of hundreds on The Meadows, Ian Murray, MP for Edinburgh South, said: “I just came back from the Teapot Trust who work with terminally sick kids – and what’s the best Boris Johnson can say to them? That they might just have enough medicines to get by.

“The promises they made cannot be kept, and reality has kicked in.”