Veteran UK politician and World War II refugee Lord Dubs says Brexit has made the UK a “meaner and nastier country”.
The Labour peer, now 86, was one of the 10,000 Jewish children rescued and brought to the UK from Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 via the Kindertransport programme organised by Nicholas Winton.
Now, he has told The Big Issue, the rhetoric of right-wing politicians is having a devastating effect on children whose experiences today reflect his own.
He said: “I think Brexit has certainly made us a meaner and nastier country. I knocked on a lot of doors during the referendum campaign and immigration was what they talked about.
“I pointed out that I had been in hospital and everybody who looked after me was an immigrant. People replied that ‘it’s not the ones that are here, it’s the ones that are going to come’.”
“There’s a fear factor built up by Boris Johnson and the Leave campaign saying that 80 million Turks were poised to enter Britain, which is complete nonsense. Brexit did poison the atmosphere.”