James O’Brien explains how Brexiteers have now made ‘Project Fear’ part of their plan

Radio presenter James O’Brien has rinsed the government’s response to the Brexit fallout in an impassioned monologue on LBC.

As the UK faces labour shortages, a petrol crisis, and potentially empty shelves in the lead up to Christmas, O’Brien slammed Conservatives who now insist that this was all part of the plan.

Speaking about the Conservative u-turn on issues they once dismissed as Project Fear, O’Brien said: “From the governor of the Bank of England right through to the head of most FTSE 100 companies and every prime minister this country has ever had - everybody who explained and predicted what is happening now was shouted down by the people now in power.”

O’Brien said the government has now moved from claiming predictions of labour shortages and empty shelves were ridiculous to claiming it was always part of their plan.

He said: “That’s what they’re doing to you now, these people, led by Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg and the rest of them. Getting away with it, not properly held to account for it, barely even questioned about it - they are going from claiming ‘it was all a load of scaremongering ‘remoaner’ Project Fear nonsense’ to claiming everyone knew this was going to happen.”

O’Brien said when it comes to business, business owners are now being blamed for not being prepared for “unprecedented and entirely unnecessary” problems the government told them not to worry about.

“The message that Downing Street is giving to those businesses is ‘it’s your fault for not being ready to deal with all the things we told you weren’t going to happen’,” he said.

In a nutshell, O’Brien says we’re all being gaslit by Boris et al.

Gripped by a petrol crisis that has seen the army stepping in to deliver fuel, Johnson yesterday blamed haulers for the HGV driver shortage. A significant factor behind the shortage of lorry drivers is that Brexit has made Britain an unattractive place to work.

Of the 600,000 HGV drivers working in the UK pre-Brexit, half have now left the industry and a further 16,000 to 20,000 have returned home since Britain left the EU. The HGV driver shortage is apparent across the continent, but Brexit has exacerbated the issue, according to the i. 

The Conservative party conference today enters its last day. The Manchester event hasn’t been free from controversy, and certain comments have left us scratching our heads.