A Question Time audience member launched into a furious rant, claiming the UK hasn’t “started Brexit yet”.
The audience member accused Alastair Campbell of “three years of frustration”, adding that Covid and the Ukraine war have also contributed to the delay in implementing Brexit.
He said: “2016 was the only lie. There was no intention or expectation from David Cameron that we were actually going to leave the EU.
“There was a huge campaign, far bigger than the Leave campaign – government leaflets, etc, media, celebrities.
“So there was no expectation we were going to leave. And the result came in – we’re leaving.
“Then we had three years of frustration from people like Mr Campbell.
“Most of the MPs on both sides trying to frustrate – legal term – frustrate the process.”
He added: “So we had another election three years later in 2019 – a massive vote, this is about a disconnect from political parties and voters.
“We have a massive win. After that, no chance. We had Covid and then we had Ukraine. We haven’t started Brexit yet. When’s it gonna start?”
Mr Campbell, the former spin doctor to Sir Tony Blair, faced furious criticism from audience members after he took pity on the Clacton crowd for being lied to during the referendum campaign.
He said: “You were lied to I’m afraid, you were lied to.”
The anti-Brexit campaigner added: “You were told it would be pain-free, you were told it would all be upsides no downsides, you were told getting a deal would be easy, that it would be straightforward to leave, you were told we would get the money on the health service.
“Lots of the things you were told would happen, such as a trade deal with the United States haven’t happened, and lots of the things you were told wouldn’t happen have happened.”
A furious audience member opposed this analysis, saying Mr Campbell’s argument made her “blood boil”.
She said: “Sorry it just makes my blood boil when I keep hearing that same thing about the fact that we were lied to.
“That’s just not the case, we didn’t believe that, I certainly never believed that. I wanted out to be sovereign, to not be encumbered by the EU.”
At this, the audience burst into a round of applause.
