According to the former Tory minister, the benefits of leaving the EU are not being effectively publicised.
Ann Widdecombe, a Brexit supporter, has asked Nigel Farage to make a dramatic comeback to finish the job he started. And the ex-Tory MP and Brexit Party MEP indicated she would consider re-entering the race if the conditions were perfect.
The discussion took place just days after an opinion poll published in the Sunday Telegraph last weekend found that 33% of Tory voters now believe leaving the EU has caused more difficulties than it has solved.
Ms Widdecombe said the survey’s findings highlighted the fact that Brexit supporters were still struggling to make their case nearly seven years after the 2016 referendum.
“I don’t believe the Brexit Party should have collapsed quite as rapidly as it did,” she told Express.co.uk.
“Because I believe there was still work to be done. We had Brexit, that was true, but we had to make sure that it was meaningful and that we took advantage of it.
“And since we’re not doing that, the other side is winning the propaganda battle, because we’ve got COVID, we’ve had Ukraine, and both have caused great economic problems in the country.”
Nigel Farage is a member of the European Parliament in Brussels (Image: GETTY)
It was thus quite easy for Remainers to highlight the disadvantages of cutting relations with Europe, according to Ms Widdecombe, who served with Mr Farage as one of 29 Brexit Party MEPs in 2019.
“I actually responded back to a writer on my website who claimed Brexit had been an utter disaster, providing all the facts for what’s gone well since Brexit that are fully attributable to Brexit,” she continued. Yet we don’t hear that any longer. You’ll never get it from the BBC.
“I believe we should be very proud of Brexit, we should stick to Brexit, and we should make the most of it now, which we have never done.”
“I’ve always argued that there are strong arguments for coming out and good ones for staying in, but there has never been a case for coming out and then acting as if we were still in, which is what we’re doing.”
People typically outlive their causes, but Ms Widdecombe claimed that the Brexit Party had done the “exact reverse.”
Reform As membership ‘explodes,’ the UK seeks disgruntled Tory seats.” People, I usually say, outlive their causes. Brexit, on the other hand, had the opposite effect.
“The Brexit Party had run its course at the time, but that was not the case.
“At the time, we had Boris, and it was understandable to assume, ‘Well, we’re actually going to make something of Brexit,'” she says.
“Now we have a number of Remainers, including the chancellor, and it’s different, and we don’t have a unified party focused solely on Brexit.”
Ms Widdecombe stated that Mr Farage believed he had won the Brexit war and that it was now up to others to build on that.
“It’s a bit like a general winning a victory,” she explained. He returns home, but he does not anticipate having to manage the show.