Heseltine calls Brexit pack of lies’ and urges new vote

Michael Heseltine said Brexiteers sold Britain a pack of lies” as he called for the UK to rejoin the European Union.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The former deputy prime minister said the UK should be “at the heart of Europe” and that returning to the bloc would be “in the best interests of a generation of young British people”.

Speaking ahead of Friday’s fifth anniversary of Britain’s official departure from the EU, Lord Heseltine told the BBC: “The creation of the single market was Margaret Thatcher’s greatest achievement. It was a culmination of the determination that war should be eliminated from the landmass of Europe.”

He added: “I was rather keen on these ideas. And I am appalled by Brexit, I don’t believe for an instant that we should accept the verdict of a pack of lies that was paraded by various people in order to persuade people we had to sever our relationship with Europe.”

His intervention came as Downing Street confirmed Sir Keir Starmer will ignore the fifth anniversary of Brexit, with the prime minister instead focusing on his ongoing reset of relations with the EU.