Reacting to the shocking news of Great Britain’s decision to exit the European Union, UK-born Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney responded to “fearmongering” and offered an explanation of the voters’ discontent.
“The British have become increasingly frustrated by being ruled, essentially, in many aspects of their lives by an alien, foreign bureaucracy. Notably the bureaucrats in Brussels, Belgium,” Varney said in a simulcast with “Fox Business Network” and “Fox News Channel” on June 24.
He said the vote makes it “looks like a falling apart of the European Union.”
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The host of Varney & Co. added that, “That does not go down well in a country which has several hundred years of experience with direct democracy through Britain’s Parliament. This sentiment, this unhappiness, this resentment has been building for a very long time and it was exacerbated in the very recent past by this migrant crisis which threatens the whole of Europe. Which threatens to swamp the British ... they didn’t like it. They wanted to control their borders.”
Varney said many of the predictions about how bad things would be if Brexit happened were just “fearmongering” to dissuade voters who wanted to leave the EU.
“There was some outrageous suggestions that there would be a war, or that we’d go into a cataclysmic decline and recession,” he said. “I don’t think it’s gonna be that bad. I think there are negatives for the immediate future for the British economy and certainly for the European economy. But for America, I don’t think there’s going to that much of a downside move economically at this point.”
He also blamed “shaming” for why it appeared the referendum would result in the UK remaining part of the EU:
“I think the leave campaign was under polled. That is to say, many people who wanted to get out of the European Union were shamed into saying ‘Well, I’m not sure. Maybe we should stay.’ Because, in Britain if you wanted to get out, you were labeled a bigot. You were labeled an Islamophobe. You didn’t like foreigners. You were a hater. So the exit people, the leave people were under polled.”
Varney is now an American citizen.
