David Lammy calls Brexit 'a con, a trick, a swindle' in passionate Commons speech

Labour MP David Lammy has given one of the most passionate anti-Brexit speeches that the Commons has ever seen.

The MP for Tottenham spoke to the Commons on Thursday and criticised his fellow MPs on both sides of the debate for continuing to back Brexit and its "fundamental dishonesty".

The 46-year-old highlighted how devastating leaving the European Union will be for people around the country, how a trade deal with Donald Trump will "dismantle the NHS" and how immigration will only increase after Brexit.

Most MPs must now recognise in private but do not say it in public.

Brexit is a con, a trick, a swindle, a fraud. A deception that will hurt most of those people it promised to help.

A dangerous fantasy which will make every problem it claims to solve worse. A campaign won on false promises and lies.

Vote Leave and Leave EU both broke the law. Russian interference is beyond reasonable doubt.

And by now, every single campaign promise made in 2016 has become unstuck.

Brexit will not enrich our NHS, it will impoverish it.

Our trade deal with Donald Trump will see the US corporations privatise and dismantle the NHS one bed at a time.

And even those promises on immigration which has so greatly enriched our country, are a lie.

After Brexit immigration will go up not down. When we enter into negotiations with countries like India and China, they will ask for three things: visas, visas and more visas.

And they will get them because we will be weak.

He then goes on to point the finger and the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson for "selling a lie" to voters, and urges the public not to blame Brussels, but to blame Westminster for letting them down, and for them to be angry "at the chancers than sold you a lie".

Friends on this side of the House tell me to appease Labour voters in industrial towns; the former miners, the factory workers, those who feel they've been left behind.

I say we must not patronise them with cowardice. Let's tell them the truth. You were sold a lie. Parts of the media used your fears to sell papers and boost viewing figures.

Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson exploited the same prejudice to win votes. Shame on them. Immigrants have not taken your jobs, our schools and colleges failed to give you the skills.

Hospitals are not crumbling because of health tourists, because of decades of austerity that ground them down to the bone.

You cannot afford a house because both parties failed to build, not because of Mohammed down the road who moved it. And wealth was hoarded in London when it should have been shared across the country.

Blame us. Blame Westminster. Do not blame Brussels for our own country's mistakes and do not be angry at us for telling you the truth. Be angry at the chancers who sold you a lie.

Lammy's speech comes among a week-long debate on Brexit ahead of a crucial vote on Tuesday for Theresa May's maligned deal for leaving the European Union on 29 March.

HT iNews

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