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Former French ambassador accuses UK Prime Minster of being ‘unrepentant liar’ in new book

By March 5, 2021News, Political

Boris Johnson has been described as an “unrepentant and inveterate liar” by a French ambassador in her new book Goodbye Britannia.

Sylvie Bermann, who was French ambassador during the 2016 Brexit vote, accuses Boris Johnson of believing he is not subject to the same rules as other people.

Bermann described Britain’s decision to leave the European Union as emotional rather than based in fact and only won through lying, and the manipulation of xenophobic attitudes already present in the UK.

There is also a prediction that the UK PM would use the global pandemic to hide the real cost of Brexit on the UK economy. Bermann wrote: “Boris Johnson’s temptation will be to hide the bill for Brexit under the Covid carpet, valued at more than £200 billion for 2020, almost as much as the United Kingdom’s total contribution to the European Union since its accession in 1973, which was £215 billion.”

Goodbye Britannia also explains how those in power were convincing the public to vote for Brexit by “reciting a history in which the UK is never defeated, never invaded”, and playing on nationalistic attitudes about how WWII was won. The book suggests that Britain has the attitude that since WWII, Britain does not need any help but is the main hero in their own story.

She explains that it is “right to remember that they [Britain] were not alone and you cannot live with a history that stopped in June 1944”.

Former PM David Cameron is also discussed in the book. It is said Cameron did not take the referendum process seriously, and that losing the vote, and having to leave his position as PM, was the first sign of populism taking hold of a government in Europe.

Bermann asks: “How this country whose influence had been decisive in Brussels, which insolently rolled out the red carpet for French entrepreneurs and which Xi Jinping had elected in October 2015 as the gateway to Europe, at the dawn of a golden period, how has it undertaken to scuttle itself?”

The book is currently printed in French, and we await an English translation, however there is no news as to when we may expect it.

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