Eddie Mair Grills Brexit Party Chairman On No-Deal As Tory Peer Argues It Was Never Debated
6 August 2019, 16:42 | Updated: 6 August 2019, 16:57
Eddie Mair grilled Brexit Party Chairman and MEP Richard Tice on no-deal Brexit as Tory Peer Lord Finkelstein argues no-deal was never debated in the lead up to the referendum.
In the heated exchange, Richard Tice told Eddie Mair that the mandate in the 2016 referendum "was leave or remain", and that he was involved in "dozens of debates and discussions" during the referendum period but the issue of a deal was "very remote" in the reasons why people voted to leave.
But when Eddie pressed the MEP on whether no-deal was part of the debate, Mr Tice noted that the ballot paper did not specify people would be voting to leave 'with a deal'.
"People who don't want to leave are trying a different method to try and stop it," he said.
But Conservative peer Lord Daniel Finkelstein, interrupted, calling the MEP out because there wasn't a debate on "exactly what deal we would get" during the referendum period.
He said: "Nobody in the referendum, it was completely silent on the question of exactly what deal we would get and we are entitled to an argument about when we should leave and upon what basis, and that argument is not covered by the referendum result and you are the person who resisted leaving on March 29th because you opposed the deal and I wanted to leave."
Mr Tice refuted the Tory peer by saying the UK should leave without a deal so that it could begin negotiations from "a different position".
"The first thing you must do is leave, that was the mandate and we should leave, get it done, and then we move on, and then we start to negotiate from a different position but at least you have left," he said.
Lord Finkelstein replied: "I am in favour of leaving, but I believe we should leave once we've negotiated a sensible deal that we can agree on.
"Personally that moment already happened, and I think we did get a deal. You're not satisfied with it, so we should carry on until we've got a sensible deal.
"To leave without a deal is irresponsible and unnecessary, and it's not mandated by the referendum result.
"You can claim that I am wrong, but you can not claim the referendum dictates in your favour because the referendum is silent between us on this argument on how we should leave and when we should leave."
Watch the heated row in full in the video above.
