Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the PM herself have become the latest targets of a mysterious billboard campaign that is trolling politicians with their own words.
A giant poster of a 2016 quote from the environment secretary appeared in Essex on Monday, in which Gove wrote: “The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want.”
As pointed out by more than a few people on social media, this jars ever so slightly with his latest memorable assessment of the Brexit process made this week when he said: “Winter is coming” if MPs voted down Theresa May’s much-maligned deal. Which they did. In historic numbers.
The billboard has been promoted by a Twitter account called Led By Donkeys, but there is no further information on the identities of those involved.
It’s not immediately clear if the campaign is a guerrilla operation or if those behind the posters have paid for the advertising space.
On Wednesday morning it was revealed Dover had been plastered with four of more posters, highlighting:
- Dominic Raab’s lack of knowledge about the Dover-Calais crossing when he said in November last year: “I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and if you look at how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing.”
- Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2011 saying: “We could have two referendums. As it happens, it might make more sense to have the second referendum after the renegotiation is completed.”
- Dr Liam Fox stating in 2017 that a trade with the EU would be “one of the easiest in human history”.
- Theresa May stating in 2016 that: “Remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from crime and terrorism.
The campaign provoked a response from David Davis earlier this week after he featured on one of the first billboards to appear.
It showed the classic: “There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside.”
The use of a tweet to frame the quote is a little disingenuous as Davis made the remark in the Commons, not on Twitter. He told HuffPost UK: “Not for the first time some of the Remain campaign think it’s proper to use a completely out of context and misleading quotation. Anybody who has read the original will see what was said was not implied by this.”
More importantly, he said that the full context of his remark in the Commons in 2016 was that he said that there would be no downsides if the UK took control of its borders and laws while maintaining current security arrangements and had the best possible open access to EU trade.
“If we can achieve all that, there will be no downside to Brexit at all, and considerable upsides,” he had told MPs.
The account is now inviting suggestions for what their next poster should be and where it should be placed.
Back in Westminster, the fallout from May’s massive defeat in the vote over her Brexit deal continues with cross-party moves are underway to effectively force the House of Commons to find a majority for an alternative way forward.
MPs could stage a series of ‘knock-out’ votes on Brexit under a radical new plan to stop the UK from crashing out of the EU without a deal, HuffPost UK revealed this morning.