Heseltine: Es ist an der Zeit, das „abscheuliche Verbrechen“ Brexit von Boris Johnson und Nigel Farage rückgängig zu machen

It’s [their](https://static.independent.co.uk/2026/06/11/11/1683696923..?quality=75&width=1368&auto=webp) 
responsibility and a major crime indeed. Lock them up. 
Who was boosting Brexit? Bannon, US influence operations, Russians etc.

And who could be better suited for that than Boris Johnson or Nigel Garage!

Didn’t they vote for this themselves?

Perhaps the general public should take some responsibility as well.

PREACH!

Edit- And it is criminal what they have done, & they should both be put up on charges of fking treason. The harm those two fkrs have done to my country is immeasurable.

Very well said, I’m pleased he has called out the open lies and grift (all of which was already obvious to everyone with half a brain 10 years ago, no need to tell me). And yeah, he’s right to point out that Farage &co don’t normally shy away from spewing their vile takes into the media 24/7, so the fact they’re not claiming their „baby“ 10 years on is all you need to know.

Incredibly depressing how much of the UK public is currently falling for the same scam from the same traitor under a different party banner.

This is the paradox….we can all see Brexit was a lie and a failure funded by Russia. it’s beyond argument. There is NO good brexit and it’s made us all 5% worse off as a nation. Nobody sensible still supports it – you either want to rejoin or believe there’s a magical brexit that will work if we give up all our human rights.

So the inevitability is rejoin…yet everyone seems to think you can’t change a vote and democracy ended a decade ago – despite the vote being older people in poorer health that have largely died out. It was originally leaver’s fault, now it’s everyone’s.

The best move it to push to rejoin ASAP and see what we can salvage from the original deal we had. Any delay is weakening our position.

Username checks out.

Some people really have a hard time to get over it. The UK will never come back.

Time to move on

If only the EU had an Army they could invade the tiny island.

They broke a priceless vase.

They can’t unbreak it. All they can do now is buy a cheaper knock-off that sort of looks the same, but will never be as special.

Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage… And the majority of voters who voted Yes in the referendum’s „heinous crime“.

It wasn’t a thing of 2 politicians, it were millions of xenophobic british who didn’t want we europeans to freely move to their country…

For Johnson we know that his confused looks and behaviour are mostly an act (he makes a point in messing up his hear when he sees a camera approaching). But for Farage I don’t know yet. Is he really an idiot? (I mean his points of view are bad enough but that does not make him an idiot) Or is he just pulling weird faces because he turned looking like an idiot into his image or something?

Even Labour was for Brexit back then. People forget fast. It was popular in a ton of groups and Labour was led by a progressive left-winger who saw the West as an evil. And hence EU and NATO were not the good guys.

The centrists who didn’t want it weren’t in power at all. Everyone is to blame. But mostly voters.

[Boris Johnson](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/boris-johnson) and [Nigel Farage](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/nigel-farage) should “hang their heads in shame” for the damage they caused to Britain by leading the campaign that saw it leave the EU, [Michael Heseltine](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/michael-heseltine) has said.

The former Conservative deputy prime minister said that 10 years on from the EU referendum the “bankruptcy” of their claims that Brexit would bring huge benefits to the UK had been exposed and led voters to believe that it should be reversed.

The British public had been “lied” to in a “heinous crime”, Lord Heseltine, who served under John Major and Margaret Thatcher’s governments, writes for *The Independent* after it launched its [Europe – The Way Back ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/europe-the-way-back)campaign.

Brexit was a “self-imposed disaster” and it is time for Britain to “reclaim our traditional role as a major European nation” and rejoin the EU.

His intervention comes after a [stark new poll reveals](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-uk-second-referendum-b2993826.html) that nearly half of the British public want a [second Brexit referendum](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit/rejoin-eu-britain-brexit-reverse-referendum-b2983605.html), including a fifth of voters from Mr Farage’s party [Reform UK.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-robert-kenyon-social-media-makerfield-byelection-b2993383.html)

The study by Ipsos, King’s College London and UK in a Changing [Europe](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/europe), found that much of the public was open to [rapprochement with the EU](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-uk-energy-bills-nick-thomas-symonds-b2992607.html), with almost half backing a closer relationship and 60 per cent wanting more cooperation on defence.

The number of people who say [Brexit](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/brexit) is going worse than they had predicted has almost doubled in the past five years, from 27 per cent in 2021 to 48 per cent today – more than those saying it was going as well as or better than expected.

Passionate pro-European Lord Heseltine said it was telling that few of those who led the Brexit campaign now claim it has been a success.

“Where are the paeans of praise to Brexit from Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings and their accomplices for the land of milk and honey they told us it would deliver?” he writes.

“Never have so few done so much damage to so many with so little ability to execute what they lied about.

“They don’t normally hold back from giving their opinions. The reason is obvious I would suggest: their scandalously false prospectus has turned to dust and ashes. They are the guilty men and should hang their heads in shame.”

Lord Heseltine accuses prominent Brexiteers such as Mr Johnson and Mr Farage of “walking away from their heinous political crime”. Instead they offered “feeble excuses as to why all their bold promises of more jobs, more trade, more power for Britain have all proved to be a con”.

“Naturally they blame everyone but themselves. At the time of the 2016 referendum Brexit campaign leaders had dismissed warnings that it would make Britain worse off, calling such claims ‘Project Fear’,” said Lord Heseltine.

He continued: “But those warnings turned out to be true. Now ‘Project Fear’ has become ‘Project Here’.

“Promises that cutting ties with Brussels would make the UK better off had come to nothing,” he argues.

“Years later public opinion has come to realise the bankruptcy of those claims. The mood has changed and reflects a majority in favour of rejoining. The present government is making hesitant approaches to move in that direction but the fear of the extreme right is acting like a ball and chain on our political classes.

“We should reclaim our traditional role as a major European nation. We should do so in the interests of growing generations of our young people. We should do it in our interests as a nation state with limited resources. As a European partner we can compete with the world’s largest economies.

“Brexit was a self-imposed disaster for this country. It erected barriers between our manufacturing and service industries and our largest market. In a range of cultural, artistic, environmental and academic policies. It left our diplomats waiting in the corridors to learn what decisions were being taken with profound consequences for us.”

The problems were there long before the referendum. Media, both left and right wing hating the EU during the Greek financial crisis and refugee crisis that followed in its footsteps. To a class of politicians who made lying just a habit and a populace that was perfectly fine as long as the lies were entertaining.

Many voters were dreaming of an ‚anglosphere‘ dominating the world, the EU collapsing while the former EU nations would trip over each other to give the UK everything it wants and more.

I can’t see a true rejoin happening.

EU’s work at creating a EU partner tier member for the likes of Canada / Turkiye might be their way to getting close again.

EU letting GB join with exemptions unique to them I can’t see happening and I can’t see GB giving up the £ or adapting their agricultural laws and shipping? I can’t remember the exact exemptions they had.

That said. I would bloody love GB to be in EU again. Mostly for friends living there but it just feels like the GB I grew up with belongs at the table next to Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the rest. I grew up in the years of creation and still remember the vision of a dual citizen, a citizen both a European and of a nationality, the idea of a unified Europe creating a new generation that saw themselves as a European just as much as *insert nation*.

Right wing idiocracy/populism is still here, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to start the rejoin process when it’s like „58% support rejoining“ or a slim margin like that. It’s just going to cause more political flareups and headaches.

Another obvious issue: Reform is currently leading in the polls, which is an completely untenable position to start the rejoin process.

Actually I don’t think now is the time

We need to understand the failings in our society and education that have lead to farage first

I voted against brexit but it seems too early to be doing this when Reform are leading the polls. If we rejoined only for reform to win the next election and take us out again, I’m pretty sure we’d be out permanently 

As a Belgian I wouldn’t mind if the Brits would rejoin the EU. They can even keep the pound for all I care. I just want to travel to the UK without the effing hassle.

There is no „reversing“ it, you’ll get a new membership with new conditions.

Europe: Pass