Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused the European Parliament’s Brexit boss of leading a “colonialist” and “high handed” approach to negotiations.
Speaking to the BBC, the North East Somerset MP said Guy Verhofstadt has been “condescending” the British government in his role as chair of the European Union (EU) Parliament’s Brexit steering committee.
Mr. Rees-Mogg’s comments come after the European Parliament threatened to veto Theresa May’s offer on the rights of EU nationals, branding plans to grant 3.2 million migrants from countries within the bloc the right to permanently stay after five years a “damp squib”.
Under the prime minister’s offer, Europeans who live in the UK for five years would have the same rights to health, education, pensions, and other benefits. But Verhofstadt claimed the deal would create “second class citizens”, complaining Mrs. May’s plans would stop EU nationals from voting in local elections, and said it was wrong that Europeans would have to meet a minimum wage requirement in order to bring in family members.
Mr. Rees-Mogg told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “In no foreign country in the world do foreign nationals expect to be treated better than local people are.
“What we’ve offered is generous and right, and the idea that it should be supervised by the European Court, which some in the EU side have suggested, is preposterous,” said the Tory MP, noting: “American citizens are not protected by the Supreme Court of the United States. Chinese citizens are not protected by whatever the equivalent is in the People’s Republic of China.
“It’s a very condescending, high handed, colonialist approach that some EU spokesmen are taking,” he added.
Criticising Britain’s record of “rolling over” in negotiations with the bloc, the Brexit campaigner said the country should act in its own interests.
“They’re negotiating aren’t they, and they want to take a tough line….and we should negotiate back, but too often it seems that we want to roll over and have our tummies tickled, and I’m very against tummy-tickling in this context,” Mr. Rees-Mogg told the BBC Sunday evening.
He also slammed British politicians who continue to plot and rally against Britain’s exit from the EU despite the nation’s historic referendum vote last June, asserting that Brexit is “a really exciting opportunity, and we need to stop Remoanerism”.
“What we need to be talking about is why it’s a great opportunity, leaving the European Union, why we can be better off, raising standards of living for people, what the business opportunities are around the world and domestically,” he said.
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