Ten years on from the day the UK voted to leave the European Union, the Scottish Liberal Democrats unveiled an anti-Brexit, anti-Farage billboard in Leith, Edinburgh.
The billboard asks the question “Ten years on, do you feel better off?”
An image of Nigel Farage clutching a briefcase full of cash drives home the message – the Lib Dems believe Brexit is costing Britain £90bn per year.
Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh Northern, was steadfast in her belief that the UK should eventually join the EU but stopped short of outlining how her party would go about this, when this would happen, or if it would require another referendum.
Speaking in front of the new billboard, Dijkstra-Downie, who was born in the Netherlands, described Brexit as an “unmitigated disaster” and laid the blame at the foot of Nigel Farage and the Brexiteers.
She said: “Well, it’s really clear that Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for this country.
“We know that Brexit is costing us 90 billion pounds a year, that is 250 million pounds every day, that could have gone to doctors, to nurses, to our schools, to vital public services.
“That’s money that’s been squandered by Nigel Farage and the Conservatives. Liberal Democrats won’t stand for this. We have a plan to fix this.”
She added: “We need to make sure that we rebuild that trust and partnerships with the EU, so that we can boost our economy.
“We can take away barriers from businesses that are trading with the EU and strengthen our defence partnerships with our European partners: that’s the most important thing that we can do right now.
“The first thing that we need to do is reopen conversations about joining a single market and a customs union with the EU.
“That will allow us to have conversations about trade, boost our economy, and also grow our partnerships around defence, because we live in very uncertain times and we need to work very closely together with our European partners and cooperate more closely.”
Despite the leading role played by Tory Brexiteers in engineering the UK’s exit, she reserved most of her ire for Nigel Farage.
“Farage is clearly one of the architects of Brexit. He is still around and his party has not been upfront about the cost of Brexit.
“We want to make sure that people understand how expensive Brexit has been for the UK. 90 billion pounds every year is costing us. We want reform and Nigel Farage to be upfront about this. If they’re not doing it then we will.”
Reform UK has criticised the content of the Brexit deal negotiated by the UK but has opposed any attempts to establish closer ties between the UK and the EU.
Dijkstra-Downie was clear that she and the Scottish Liberal Democrats back rejoining the EU somewhere down the line but would not say whether this would require another referendum or not.
On the likely ascent of former staunch Remainer, Andy Burnham, to the post of Prime Minister, she added: “Andy Burnham, or whoever is going to be our next Prime Minister, has got a very short window to get some things right.
“What we want to see him do is adopt some Liberal Democrat policies around fixing the NHS by fixing social care, but also really boost our economy, and I don’t see how we can do that without talking about a closer relationship with Europe.
“We, of course, want him to have these conversations with European partners, try and get back into the single market, and have a customs union – that’s what we would like to see whoever is our new Prime Minister do as a priority.”
Prior to his resignation, Keir Starmer scheduled EU-UK “reset” talks, encompassing critical areas like defence, food standards, and passport checks, for July 22. The summit has been thrown into doubt following the Prime Minister’s resignation, with Brussels indicating it is reassessing whether to proceed as Burnham is expected to take over.
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