A Conservative peer laid into the government last night, saying the Tories had triggered their own “demise” by going ahead with Brexit.
Stuart Rose, current chairman of Asda and previously chairman of the official Remain campaign, said the decision to leave the EU when 48% of voters wanted to stay in the trading bloc was a “big mistake”.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge, Lord Rose said: “We are the architects of our own demise.
“Our own demise started in 2016 when we made the ridiculous vote to come out of Europe.
“Well, you would say, ‘you’re an old moaning Remoaner, Remainer,’ but of course, I am.
“But if you look at the stats no one has yet convinced anybody that coming out of Europe was the right thing to do.
“And, you know, by setting the barrier so low at a 50% majority, most of those people – dare I say it – the one or two per cent who got them over the line to get us to do Brexit, have died, because they are mostly older people.”
He said neither business leaders nor young people were happy with the result.
“So we made a big mistake,” Lord Rose continued. “Everything we’ve done since then, apart from the one big factor which no one could have predicted – Covid – has a link back to what we did when we came out on Brexit.”
The peer also told Ridge that he is “not hopeful” the Tories will win the next general election, despite believing in Conservative values.
He said: ’If this was a government judged like a chief executive of a corporation, he or she wouldn’t have lasted 14 years.
“The shareholders would have said, ‘on your bike.’”
Rose is not alone in this prediction; a former Tory adviser and current polling expert said this week that Labour has a 95% chance of winning at the next election.
Keir Starmer’s party is leaps and bounds ahead of their rivals in the opinion polls.
The latest from YouGov found the party is a staggering 26 points of the Tories in the opinion polls, while Reform UK is just four points behind Rishi Sunak’s party with 15%.