Yahoo News Lib Dem leader Vince Cable condemned for accusing Brexit voters of being racist
Sir Vince Cable has been forced to deny accusing Brexit voters of being racist after he attacked their ‘white nostalgia’ in a major speech.
The leader of the Liberal Democrats was faced with criticism after telling his party’s spring conference that too many of those who voted for Brexit were ‘driven by a nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white, and the map was coloured imperial pink’.
Several Tories attacked the comments as ‘unfair’ and called for him to apologise.
MEP Daniel Hannan, a prominent Brexiteer, tweeted: ‘Calling 17.4 million people racists is unfair and unwise.’
Calling 17.4 million people racists is unfair and unwise. The real nostalgia here is Vince Cable’s bizarre attachment to the 1950s vision of a federal Europe. There’s a whole world out there, Vince. https://t.co/hX476NHdFa
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) March 11, 2018
Other Brexit supporters also blasted Sir Vince’s comments:
Deputy Chairman of the @Conservatives @JamesCleverly on Cable’s “white faces” slur: “I thought we had moved on from the prejudiced view that Brexit was driven by casual racism. It certainly wasn’t the reason I voted for Brexit.” https://t.co/DQceCOi8xU
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) March 11, 2018
The more I think about this the more angry it makes me. Mr Invisible is using divisive language to seek attention rather than helping to unite the country.
We are focused on a Brexit that works for everyone, he’s just shouting “notice me!!!”https://t.co/5QywFUuBTp
— James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) March 11, 2018
So Vince Cable is calling 17.4 million people racist. Divisive, offensive and just plain wrong https://t.co/S3Xm9vCpF5
— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) March 11, 2018
What an arrogant and offensive man. His distain for 17.5 million voters is shocking and a plain stupid position for a party polling on 7% just like it was 30 yrs ago. You need to apologise Mr Cable! https://t.co/txRiZWXjrw
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) March 11, 2018
But speaking this morning, Sir Vince denied he had indicated that Brexit voters were racist, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I didn’t suggest that at all.’
The former Business Secretary in the Coalition Government insisted that ‘nostalgia for that world’ was a factor in how people had voted.
He said: ‘One of the factors was indeed nostalgia. Why else has so much fuss been made about the change in the colour of the passport?’
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Sir Vince also told Talk Radio that his comments were a criticism of his own party.
He said: ‘I completely abhor racism.
‘I’m in favour of people having a British identity, I was being critical of my own party which isn’t particularly diverse or representative of the British public.’
Sir Vince said one of the most effective pieces of ‘propaganda’ during the referendum had been an advertisement unveiled by then Ukip leader Nigel Farage showing a queue of non-white people with ‘breaking point’ written in large letters.
During his speech on Sunday, Sir Vince warned of the ‘toxic’ fall-out of the Brexit referendum that was fuelling the rise of the populist right in Britain.
He told the conference in Southport that the divide opened up by the June 2016 vote had left the country mired in a ‘protracted, non-violent civil war’.
