Brexit Party candidate tries to claim the EU is stopping the UK from tackling child poverty

A candidate for the Brexit Party has falsely claimed that the European Union is responsible for 'child poverty'.

During an interview with Radio 4's Today Programme Mike Greene, who is campaigning to win the Peterborough by-election, said that once Brexit takes place, Britain will have more control over 'education and child poverty'.

We'll have more control about what we do in education, what we do in child poverty, how we spend the money that's going to the EU at the moment.

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins then questioned this notion from Greene, asking him which part of EU legislation is stopping the UK from doing those things.

So which bit of European law or administration, or bureaucracy is stopping us from doing something that you would specifically like to do and address problems in child education and child poverty?

Hawkins' question was met with relative silence as he didn't seem to know the answer to this query before blurting out this.

I haven't gone into the detail of specific laws but what I do know is that we are hampered by laws that are being put in place by people that aren't elected. I don't see how the EU are helping.

Greene might be best known to most as a former star of the Channel 4 reality show The Secret Millionaire and this short audio clip has seen him admonished on social media.

HT BBC

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