EU a big winner from Brexit, claims former Tory chancellor

The EU's Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier (left), arriving in London from the Eurostar - Credit: Aaron Chown/ PA

Former Tory chancellor George Osborne has claimed that one of the biggest winners of Brexit will be the European Union.

Writing in the Evening Standard, Osborne said that although the “sovereignists” would be clear victors, he said there was so few of them who would actually welcome the outcome of Brexit.

He explained: “Even among Eurosceptics, most wanted to be in a ‘common market’. But now we’re out of that. At every turn these last four years, the economy has been sacrificed to maintain the purity of sovereignty.”

He said the nationalists were also unlikely winners – not just in England – but in Scotland and Northern Ireland too.

“Here in England they have got their black passport back in blue form. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the prize is bigger. History may show the nationalists there to be the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit — which is ironic as they didn’t vote for it.”

Pointing to the fact Scotland is likely to get another independence referendum, a united Ireland is also a “realistic prospect”.

But the former Tory MP also claimed that the EU – and the negotiating team – were also a big winner from Brexit.

“Holding all the cards, they set out with the goal of making leaving the EU so unattractive that no other nation would follow us. Indeed, in the years since Brexit, that prospect has got less and less likely. Now everyone can see the water is boiling, no one else wants to jump in.”

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