Richard Bacon: Not Even Donald Trump Would Compare Leaving The EU To Slaveowners

6 July 2019, 15:43

Richard Bacon hits out at Ann Widdecombe's controversial comparison of the EU and the slave trade, saying she went further than Donald Trump would ever go.

In her first speech in the new European Parliament, Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe said there was a "pattern consistent throughout history of oppressed people turning on their oppressors", adding "slaves against their owners".

But Richard Bacon says the "mad" comparison "trivialised slavery" and would have ended her career if she was in the United States.

Speaking on his LBC show, Richard said: "If you made a comparison like that in America as a politician, if you use that metaphor, you would be probably be finished.

"Think of everything Trump has said, and all those offensive things that really shock us from our British perspective, and you really can't believe his plan to ban Muslims from coming into America.

"We couldn't believe he went that far and survived, but he would never go as far as Ann Widdecombe went on Thursday.

"He would never make that comparison."

Richard added: "So when you're in the territory of beyond what Donald Trump would do, you're in a weird space anyway.

"And of course their relationship with race is very different to ours, but I can't see any logical reason why it should be okay or even survivable to trivialise slavery like that.

"It's a mad comparison to say that being in the EU is somehow like being overseen by a slaveowner."

Defending her remark, Ms Widdecombe told Eddie Mair that when she was a Minister "things that we wanted to do we weren't allowed to do".

"And that's oppression is it?" Eddie asked.

She went on to say the UK Government was "obliged" to do "things that we didn't want to do" suggesting this meant the UK didn't have a "say over our own laws."

Watch above.