BRUSSELS: Britain’s Brexiteers with no plan of how to deliver deserve a “special place in hell”, the EU’s Donald Tusk said, prompting fury among British anti-EU campaigners, one of whom called him an “arrogant bully”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, the European Council president said: “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit, without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.”
Tusk, who was to host British Prime Minister Theresa May later, was speaking after talks with Ireland’s prime minister on how to salvage a Brexit deal before Britain drops out of the bloc in 50 days, risking the peace in Northern Ireland.
Saying Britain would leave as a “trusted friend” if it drops objections to giving Ireland a “backstop” guarantee on the border, Tusk’s blunt language hinted at the hostility London may face if fails to find a compromise with its European neighbours.
Irish Premier Leo Varadkar was picked up by microphones laughingly telling Tusk “I know you’re right” but he would get “terrible trouble in the British press” for his jibe at Brexit.
As British headline writers lit up screens with Tusk’s words, Nigel Farage, who long campaigned to leave the European Union, hit back within minutes on Twitter: “After Brexit we will be free of unelected, arrogant bullies like you and run our own country,” he said. “Sounds more like heaven to me.”
May’s office suggested Tusk’s remark was unhelpful as she struggles to find any kind of consensus solution in London: “It’s a question for Donald Tusk as to whether he considers the use of that kind of language helpful,” her spokesman said. — Reuters
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