Yahoo News Jeremy Hunt under fire after comparing EU to Soviet Union
Jeremy Hunt has come under fire after comparing the EU to the Soviet Union.
In his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the foreign secretary accused the European Union of ‘punishing’ Britain for voting to leave, likening the approach to Soviet Union trying to stop its citizens leaving.
The former head of Foreign Office civil servants Lord Ricketts turned on Mr Hunt, calling his comments ‘unworthy of a British Foreign Secretary’.
His successor as Permanent Secretary Sir Simon Fraser described it as a ‘shocking failure of judgment’.
The Latvian ambassador to the UK, who has lived under Soviet rule, rejected the comparison, saying that the EU brought ‘prosperity, equality, growth, respect’ to her country.
Dear @faisalislam , just FYI – Soviets killed, deported, exiled and imprisoned 100 thousands of Latvia's inhabitants after the illegal occupation in 1940, and ruined lives of 3 generations, while the EU has brought prosperity, equality, growth, respect. #StrongerTogether https://t.co/BNUvmsgXnR
— Baiba Braže 🇱🇻 (@BaibaBraze) September 30, 2018
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake called Mr Hunt’s comparison a ‘naked appeal to the rightwingers who dominate his party’.
But the comments won praise from Nigel Farage, who said that the foreign secretary was ‘using my language’.
Jeremy Hunt is using my language, the EU is the new Soviet Union.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 1, 2018
In his speech on Sunday, the Foreign Secretary recalled a visit to Latvia, during which he observed how the Baltic state had developed into “a modern democracy, part of both NATO and the EU” after breaking free of the Soviet Union.
And he asked: “What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream? The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.
“The lesson from history is clear: if you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won’t diminish it will grow, and we won’t be the only prisoner that will want to escape.”
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Senior Conservative Brexiter Sir Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee, rebuked the former mandarins for speaking out.
Sir Bernard said: “It is utterly extraordinary that a former Foreign Office Perm Sec should attack a present Foreign Secretary in this way. This damages the reputation of the diplomatic service for political impartiality.”
Additional reporting from Press Association
