Campbell: Brexit promises were 'a pack of lies'

Alastair Campbell, former communications adviser to Tony Blair, says Britain's decision to leave the European Union is based on lies and has unleashed widespread racism.

[@aaronr9306]

How right he was looking back now

[@UrsusMarior]

Yea if I was Scotland I would vote for a UKexit. Let the gullible deal with there own mess.

[@ShiroNekoDen]

to bad the edinburgh white papers forbid hollyrood from countermanding westminster in issues that effect the whole of the uk.and if scotland tries to join the eu anyway spain will be vetoing them.

[@UlsterOrange]

They can enjoy the euro and full fiscal union by 2025. Dumbf**ks.

[@truthjusticeandtheamerican5757]

Right on mate. We're not stoppin you, we'd rather support your nationalism, whether it brings you to the depths of heidis called the EU or the practically unknown nation of Scotland (which some people might actually think is a country in africa)....

[@impamiizgraa]

This guy is right and more and more Leave voters I know are agreeing every day. I spent 10 years in South Africa post Apartheid and the parliament there was more stable than it is in the so-called first-world UK after this vote by gullible simpletons. God, I'm so leaving this joke of a little Englander country. In 5-7 years it will be about 18th on the world economies ranking. What a shame - hope the Brexiteers will be proud of themselves then! Budapest, here I come!

[@SvenSvenson1]

7 years later , the UK is ranked 6th on the world economy rankings . Did you move to Hungary ?

[@BorisKid]

hahahahha the british are like "Well uh..... my vote did work! Great!... err...so... we are free now? right?....so.... what's next, do we get free cookies?

[@herbert9241]

Biscuits, actually. How many would you like?

[@MarekzAnglii]

Is the current UK situation a mess? Yes, it is. But Campbell was HEAVILY exaggerating and LYING through his teeth. He is well known in the UK for being an EU puppet, liar and warmonger, who together with Tony Blair was responsible for the deaths of 100,000's of innocent people!

[@michaelmelwani7752]

Every word very strong but true.

[@kellerr13]

The people around the world are PISSED OFF because of leadership not really working for the people. And you all have no excuse.

[@RonaldoFearsEboue]

"spokesman for Tony Blair" says it all really.

[@candyhomec8169]

+Craig Seddon insults don't help. how has he destroyed the country

[@tompaine2709]

HAahahaha, Alastair Campbell, the man who made a dodgy dossier to take 2 countries to war on a lie has the gall to try and call someone else a liar..just...wow

[@les2169]

+Craig Seddon . You are talking nonsense. France and Germany are trading with all EU including UK. If they loose UK it will be lets say 10% of their export as it is just one country they are loosing. U.K. Will loose all EU at once (50% of uk export) so of course it is going to hit everybody but UK will be hit much harder because it is loosing all eu trade partners and they can still trade with each other. U.K. Just cannot afford it. It is not a rocket science either - GDP is not generated by uneducated working class who given power would destroy the country in a month but by the business and the business the generate growth need the free market to trade and need immigrants to work ( only 5% unemployment at the moment if you get rid of all the foreigners you will have massive labour gap - the businesses need immigrants like air )

[@teddyboysdontknit810]

RFE Brexit views and opinions built on one line sarcasm, it really is a pity that people like you can’t listen to basic facts when they are clearly spoken.

[@ninisparkle2544]

Donald Trump 2016!

[@angelvoice1261]

Wake up!

[@naimulhaq9626]

Bring back jobs to America will drive prices up, making the middle class pay more. America needs to reduce over seas military expenditure and reduce deficit. Hillary 2026!.

[@dabbayoo]

+Naimul Haq but we will have american goods and that's something to be proud of, well not you, but normal people

[@dabbayoo]

+Naimul Haq but we will have american goods and that's something to be proud of, well not you, but normal people

[@tigertough5164]

@Esmeralda .. Go Back to Sleep

[@RonaldoFearsEboue]

Americans immediately understand why we Brits hate our politicians.

[@TheRasczak]

People just love democracy until they're on the losing side..

[@S-u-p-a]

Or when lies are exposed. Load of smelly shite brexit turned out.

[@strahipopovic9165]

We shall all ignore these muppets show media!It is disrespectful and offensive to the people!

[@becauseitscurrentyear8397]

propaganda.

[@strahipopovic9165]

He is so fake and he will not manage to persuade even 5 years old!

[@robbybroon4904]

Boris Johnson? You are right. Look at the state of it.

[@venmis137]

The UK is fucked. I only hope its successor states sort things out, and eventually rejoin our union.

[@godlessconservativegirl6565]

Lol!! "Spokesperson for Tony Blair!" 😂 Get the fuck outta here

[@jkirk1626]

Remember the Communist News Network's platform for a Leave Campaigner to bash Remain with no opposition? Yeah, neither do I.

[@EuroScannisSchlager]

There won't be positive outcome for Britain after Brexit, already all major international industrial companies are shutting factories over possible lost of financial revenues, because they won't be able to gain access to EU trading market anymore. Most financial institutions & banks are stopping affairs with Britain, because it won't be financially profitable.

[@EuroScannisSchlager]

Scottish and Irish people did not voted for Brexit and wants to stay European citizens and strongly reject British citizenship and leadership, which yields no positive outcome for the future. The outlook and future of Britain is very bleak and miserable.

[@remainertears]

The ultimate remain high priest, beaten by the working class, I am supping up his anger and tears, they taste sweeter everyday.

[@eveb.6568]

SPOT ON!!!!

[@Graciemh43]

He should be more scared of himself! Can he not hear what he's saying?

[@2bRealist]

After the USA declared it's dependency.... it had a very rough start as well... BUT IT WAS WAY WORTH IT!!! GO BRITAIN!!

[@Shakor77]

Except UK asked to join EU and they are not forcing anyone to stay. In fact they want to get rid of UK as soon as possible. And that it was hundreds of years ago which makes your comparison even more moronic. Moron.

[@e.tressag4143]

they declared independancy though. its quite different. and the US has a lot more resources than the UK (or the dual Kingdom of Wales and England), which is quite a major factor in being able to compete with other countries economically.

[@2bRealist]

Egmont Tressag You do realize that Britain was paying more into the EU, than getting from it.... right?? O_o

[@e.tressag4143]

you are the same as all those old Germans who keep whining how their taxes are paying for Greece, ignoring the nett benefits we have gained from the situation in the process. If we compare the amount the UK will have after spending the same amount of that 350 million that the EU returned as investments, i believe there will be about 160 million left. so at first sight you seem to be right. however, once the UK is outside of the EU, it will loose all of the economic benefits it enjoys, which in turn bring a ton of money into the English economy. lets start wit the most important facet of the UK economy, the service sector. the service sector makes up a bit less than 80% of your GDP. not being a part of Europe will inhibit this sector massively, i.e. London will loose their financial passports, which is a huge deal as it will mean all those international banks that are set up in London (to deal with the EU) will likely be leaving to another city, like Dublin, Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Unfortunately for the UK, the Financial sector is the most valuable part of the service sector. so essentially, the Brexit is screwing over your most valuable economic asset big time. and this is discounting losses to economic facets inside London that indirectly benefit from the mere presence of the financial community. another important sector that will decline is your intellectual and scientific community, as less and less international researchers, graduate students and even normal students will come to Britain, as Britain will no longer be part of such programms as Erasmus, and moving there will be much more of a hassle according to prominent researchers, leaving the EU will have crippled the scientific communty, not even financially, but in regard to the movement of labor, and the ability to collaborate. this means it will cost more for England to keep up with international scientific research and developments, where, ironically, it was once a frontrunner. and this is just the intellectual part of the tip of the iceberg in regard to how limiting the free movement of labor will hamper your growth. attracting other skilled labour will be just as hard, from carpenters to mechanics to who knows what. on the unskilled labor end of the spectrum, not having polish immigrants to work your fields will be quite detrimental to your farming community, which will also no longer have the possibility to sell its stock to europe when your population can not accommodate its supply. furthermore, while you may be happy about not having EU regulations at first, once your entire fishing areas are barren, and your landscape is polluted (as there has never been an interest by your government to limit the exploitation of your natural resources) you will be wishing you had those regulations back. lastly from my side (but there is a lot more) the UK has benefited massively from the dynamics of the open European market, being able to provide firms such as VW with parts for their cars, while not having to pay any tariffs or having to work around other economic barriers. this actually pertains to a large part of the industrial sector, as your unionism in the latter part of the 20th century has actually left the UK bereft of significant firms in such sectors as the Automotive Industry (Rolls Roys, Bentley and Land Rover) meaning that industry and jobs that now exist in the UK may leave. as I am not an economist, I cant actually quantify the loss this entails to your economy. the benefits of being part of the EU, while maybe not easy to see, do, in the end, actually outweigh the costs. They did so especially for the UK, which had always gotten a better deal than the rest of us. P.S economic stability and security as gained through the EU, where you have a sort of safety net (see greece) have a worth that can not even be quantified. without the EU, the UK has no stability whatsoever. just look at how much the British stocks have fallen, look at how much less the sterling is worth only now. in the future, this will likely get worse. and if the UK does actually tank, there will be no EU to support you through the hard times as was done with Greece. THAT is what you actually paid 160 million for, and it is worth a lot more than the cash. And should something happen in the future, you will remember that the only reason you are in this position is because half your country had a tantrum, believing they had no say in Europe, while the only reason they had no say was that you refused to participate in the European project, and always kept it at arms length. if you had wanted, the UK could have been the most important EU country, determining the future of the Union and shaping it according to your interests. you didnt want this, you wanted to be special and seperate. now you are, and you cancelled your insurance in the process. P.S. you should add the economic loss of Scottland and Northern Ireland leaving the UK to the actual economic outcome of the Brexit pretty soon. I dont know how much those two parts of your economy are worth, but i believe their value should easily exceed 160 million a week.

[@2bRealist]

Egmont Tressag EU's safety net WAS to take money from the Brits... I rather take my chances and my business to the UK... than wait for the EU to implode. But good luck to you sir... sounds like you will need it O_o

[@acme181169]

Well, you heard it from his own lips! If anybody bumps into Alistair, ask him if he's moved to Scotland.

[@tubularbill]

Cameron is humiliated? He did it to himself and he should have known the consequences. Who is Campbell to say who is unfit to be PM? ....

[@cristianmutulean5565]

After this referendum the great britain will became Little Britain. Scotland will go, North Ireland also go.

[@umbertoarrigotti2030]

They can't. After the indipendence referendum of 2014 Scotland chose to reaming part of the UK and the British government told them that was their last opportunity for indipendence. They chose to stay they can't go back

[@trickynekoman]

Everyone should do an economics test before voting, and the people scoring high get more votes. That way, Brexit would have won 95% to 5%.

[@jonnyc429]

This worked out well didn't it 😂 christ

[@p.g.u.d]

did Alister threaten to fuck off to Scotland? fuck I'll buy the ticket. one way.

[@WeezaY5000]

Its great to hear someone in politics when they have nothing else to lose.

[@MrAndymayor11]

You've made your bed and now you'll have to lie in it!

[@johnclegg4993]

Hahaha seriously! Let's not mention the remain camp and the world would literally stop our money would turn to dust threats and possible world war 3 if voted leave 😂

[@VanderlyndenJengold]

Yeah, let's not mention that as you've just made it up. Argue from facts if you can.

[@markhorton8578]

And the remain warnings of war and immediate economic collapse and no one allowed in at all etc. were not? What about the Alistair/Blair promise of an EU referendum? What happened to that once Blair was voted in on it? Their undisguised contempt for the public knows no bounds, and they have no respect for democracy if it doesn't go their way.

[@markhorton8578]

***** And yet bodies such as the IMF predicted exactly that. It even got the short term forcast wrong. As you will know, the IMF is the proud holder of an extraordinary statistical record; pointed out in the Financial Times a few years ago. Never in its entire history, has it got a single long term forcast correct. This would not even occur if it had used a tombola or dice, which would have been more accurate. I believe the reason for this is that the IMF recruits economists who have certain political views, about how they think the world should be, rather than how it is. So following the statistical evidence, we should always do the opposite of what the IMF recommends.

[@peterdoodson7102]

No we won't we will independent able to trade on our own do you really think the EU is that good? they say the largest trading block but don't tell you 200 million of them don't have a pot to piss in and are supported by the richer members fuck that get out who's going to make up the money they lose when we leave Greece Italy Spain Portugal Ireland Eastern Europe?They are going to be in deeper shit than we are.

[@pstreet9326]

Wow 2 years later the people's vote has never been honored

[@mooncatklubba]

Watching the salty tears of alistair Campbell is even more delicious four years on now we’ve left and the remoaners have been obliterated.

[@markf9761]

How’s Brexit going?

[@mosticaicelandic5369]

This was an ALL time low for CNN. "It's just a bunch of dildoes!"

[@mosticaicelandic5369]

Interviewing Alistair Campbell is a joke. Brexit will force to EU to reform its undemocratic, massive bureaucracy that favors multinationals and big banks. F$ck OFF Alistair!!!!!!

[@mick947]

Did anyone vote for him? Why was he such a leading influence in the blair government. I'll give him one thing, his Machiavellian personality traits shine through when he's being interviewed. That alone should be a warning sign!

[@californiadreamin8423]

2 years later.....it's still a catastrophe and a joke.

[@kemwittalltree9650]

This man is an UK government official? Good grief!

[@kemwittalltree9650]

Oh, no wonder UK is in political trouble! Maybe the queen should run for office then.

[@kemwittalltree9650]

Great to hear. I'm sure going forward it will be much better off without Brussels.

[@beegum1]

Okay, so we have a lot of these politicians scaring the banks and markets, and I've just been talking in chat. So, here the thing. This is almost certainly going to turn out fine. It was expected to be expensive up front, but I challenge those who think this is a long term risk. Here's the thing, the EU is 43 and is a bureaucratic mess at the rule of law setting, the most basic setting, this is far different than rule of law in the US and in many other places. In the US rule of law is a simple document that is hard to change, as opposed to a complex document that is hard or easy to change. The Brexit get rid of this obstacle. Why is this a good thing, at least in the long run? This is a good thing, almost certainly in the long run, and very good thing, because as opposed to when the EU was created, during a high point in Communist bureaucracy, so, free market competition in Europe didn't need to be very competitive to be sufficient on the world stage, this was combined with the, you know, almost like a class system of regulation in European legal system which make moving up through economic quintiles very difficult... and has for hundreds of years caused poor people to emigrate.... We, as a civilization, and certainly the UK, is at a different point in time today. The UK is at least half, like 3/4s post progressive or post communist in its market thinking. And, while it may have been better to help the EU reform, it has chosen a different path. Sure, even now, there are still communist sentiments still not uncommon in the UK, but they occur everywhere, whereas for the more conservative persons, there exist economic models that far outstrip the competition of Europe. And, indeed, this could make Europe short term comparative risk, though, long term, I think the EU will either dissolve or reform to keep up... No doubt many in the UK would like to have a regulatory and trade regime as favorable as someplace like Texas (regardless of how you feel about their fundie christian sentiments and anti-social engineering ways). And, indeed, understanding this the banks are in a favorable position to help them utilize this freedom that results from the current state of human knowledge, and, indeed, as with many system, when we work together we can and generally do build some very nice things. Calm down, this is almost certainly going to turn out to be great in the long term for the people of the UK, even if it isn't what they were promised and even if it ironically eventually fuels a great deal of immigration (as with Texas) and draws many people out of poverty, which is a sure, at least partial, justification for what can seem like high pollution, until we get even better green energy and nuclear systems on line. Indeed, people aren't going to stop being poor just because we have climate change to deal with, and in that regard those who maintain best economics practices seems more capable than the other to eventually enact a full carbon neutral solution when it is ultimately available for their CONTINUING situations.

[@beegum1]

The frustrating thing is that even as I and others have been talking about these needed reforms for years now, and, indeed, by adopting similar things N. Europe and the UK, not to mention several US states, have far outpaced the rest of the world, and yet, there was so much resistance to change, AND, then, the UK is essentially punished for the slow progress of the so-called more progressive nations.

[@paulmarkmoffat4638]

Here here great stuff

[@DuruttiVisca]

i agree with a lot of what he says but when in power labour acts like the tories a lot of people do not want that anymore hence corny

[@daveduenod4442]

Who ever elected him - no-one

[@grahepo]

cnn should avoid talking to none relevant people otherwise people might think that their network is irrelevant. concerning Brexit, it would be productive to discuss what the Brexit people are doing to make Brexit into a reality

[@jrobinson3189]

look if you lost for whatever reason you have to respect the outcome in a democratic culture...end of! we are Great Britain and should be proud of it, not disrespecting our fellow countrymen for voicing their views which have shown to be the views at heart of the overall majority of the UK. be patriotic and belive in our own people to run our own country, not the ones who cannot be named from elsewhere.

[@ChristineFisher123]

Thank you Mr Campbell; you talk a lot of sense and your are straight-talking.

[@Folgemilch21]

unbelievable how stupid most comments here are... just adds to the point this guy is making. comparing the EU to imperialist oppression and so on.. people, do you even know how to read? unbelievable

[@oldseadog3386]

This is one arrogant man.

[@UlsterOrange]

Alastair Campbell is an experienced charlatan. He spun this interview like a pro.

[@remcovanek2]

And bojo is your angel

[@pvinny5815]

who watches CNN anymore? hahaha..... The truth comes out, eventually!

[@zachariaszut]

The choice made by the British people: 'a mess'. How respectful. Another political aid/journalist unfit to serve his people. Resign!

[@robbybroon4904]

Idiots were wrong and are deceived. Alistair is totally right. Bang on.

[@killstreamable]

It's better to try to solve problems together, then alone. EU is trying its best too make Europe great to live in for everyone. Please come back in the EU guys and lets face the problems together and try to solve it. Greetings from The Netherlands

[@killstreamable]

Campbell was right 2 years ago(1 day after referendum) and he's right now.

[@Berdian1]

Proud of british brexit voters. Make shure you dont get tricked into EEA agreement. Then the vote will have been for nothing.

[@Hanoitami]

Its called Democracy. Live with it.

[@Hanoitami]

+the shadow knows Its a justified outcome. Democracy stops apparently when its not following your ideal. ... Little Hitler.

[@Hanoitami]

+the shadow knows Scared of the real world? You mean TTip and CETA and Nato East Expansion? Btw I give a shit about "your" country. Its not mine. But I'll support Brexit-Voters nontheless. Whichever country they are from. The EU is but a shadow of what it actually meant to be. Corrupted by Brussel parliamentarians that only seek power and use the young and stupid in the name of "tolerance" for their cause. I am not the hardliner here. Sorry.

[@MrAdambookie]

I only see one lier. Alastair Campbell

[@SvenSvenson1]

17.4 million people ignored the remain lies e.g. George Osborne " there will be an immediate punishment budget if we vote for brexit" . Now let's get on with it.

[@robbybroon4904]

17.4 million were utterly wrong, and now most know it

[@SvenSvenson1]

@robbybroon4904 George Osborne "House prices will fall by 18%. Unemployment will rise by 800,000 " ect

[@jemimat-h9619]

Here here 👍🏼🙏🏼♥️

[@intime5982]

Nigel Farage for prime minister!!!!!!

[@aadrianlee]

VOTE UKIP OR BNP ( ;

[@chandlerbingbong]

*The fact that Campbell 'worked' for Tony Blair says everything you need to know about this man and how little integrity anything that comes out his mouth has. Just another self serving, champagne socialist*

[@gchelem]

like him or loathe him, you must admit the man was right!