James O'Brien warns of Covid unemployment colliding with Brexit
7 August 2020, 15:19
James O'Brien warns of Covid unemployment colliding with Brexit
James O'Brien warned that the unemployment caused when furlough ends is going to collide with the effects of Brexit.
Speaking on his LBC show, he said: "You know the narrative of the feckless workshy layabout was the pre-Brexit two-minutes hate.
"It was single mothers when I started this job. Then it became unemployed people. And you couldn't open a right-wing newspaper without seeing unemployed people under attack.
"If it was an unemployed single mother who had been given a big house in a smart part of town, that was all their Christmases at once."
He then went on to discuss what would happen next: "What's going to happen is the precise moment when people come to realise the reality of unemployment, so they are going to wake up to the reality of Brexit.
"And the people who have flogged you the false narrative about the unemployed, the people who've looked you in the eye and told you that living on £95 a week is an absolute King's ransom, who also told you there would also be £350m for the NHS.
"You are going to wake up to the reality of what unemployment means at precisely the same time you wake up to the reality of what Brexit means. And the people that lied to you about both, who are they going to go after to avoid responsibility for their own crimes?"
Watch his full, fascinating monologue at the top of the page.
