‘Sheer hypocrisy’: Ex-UK PM May’s call for ‘international co-operation’ in Covid-19 fight prompts anger from anti-Brexiteers
Former UK PM Theresa May has provoked the wrath of anti-Brexiteers – who have branded her a hypocrite – after penning an article urging the rejection of “nationalism” in favor of “international cooperation” to tackle Covid-19.
May’s article in the Times titled: ‘Nationalism is no ally in this battle without borders,’ published on Wednesday, bemoans that – in her view – the deadly coronavirus has been treated as a “national issue” by countries around the world to deal with alone.
Lost is the idea that countries do better by working together to solve common problems.
May – who stepped down as UK prime minister in the summer of 2019 after a torrid few years trying to solve the intractable Brexit issue for Britain – claims the Covid-19 crisis has been treated as something that has “winners and losers,” meaning a “polarised politics has taken hold.”
The UK can be the catalyst for multilateral cooperation in the 2020s and beyond – my piece for @thetimes on the global response to coronavirus https://t.co/m5UMpP5JwI
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) May 6, 2020
The Tory backbencher – who represents Maidenhead – believes countries have not attempted to form an international consensus on how best to fight the virus, which “risks exacerbating the shift towards nationalism.”
May suggests that what is needed right now is “multilateral international co-operation,” claiming that “the UK can be the catalyst” for ensuring this.
Also on rt.com Theresa May’s speech could have been from Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ – senior Lib DemIt’s this request for international co-operation that has prompted fury on social media from pro-EU advocates. Some accuse May of “sheer hypocrisy” in light of comments she made as PM at the Conservative Party conference in 2016, when she said: “If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.”
Others cited her highly controversial “hostile environment” policy while the UK home secretary, which many critics insist was responsible for the 2018 Windrush Scandal that saw people wrongly detained and threatened with deportation.
Theresa May, the woman who as PM pursued the policy of Brexit and as Home Secretary created the 'hostile environment', has now written an article complaining about nationalism and lack of global cooperation! #r4today
— Briefcase Michael (@BriefcaseMike) May 6, 2020
Others claimed that May “owed her premiership to nationalism” and “mean spirited provincial Little Englandism, blinkered Brexity disdain,” which is in complete contradiction to what she was now advocating.
Just to point out that May, like Johnson, owed her premiership to nationalism, xenophobia, populism, mean spirited provincial Little Englandism, blinkered Brexity disdain and even contempt for pretty much everything she is advocating here. https://t.co/b1STAmHVd7
— Matt Carr (@MattCarr55) May 6, 2020
May’s predecessor – Boris Johnson – is set to unveil plans on Sunday for the next phase in the UK’s fight against the Covid-19 disease. It comes as the UK has crossed the threshold of 30,000 deaths attributed to the coronavirus, outpacing the previously hardest-hit European countries such as Italy and Spain.
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