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Politics

16th Jan 2019

MPs are getting trolled with own words by pro-Remain billboard campaign

Jessica Buxbaum

Pro-Brexiteers are having their words permanently scrawled across England, thanks to a billboard campaign exposing politicians’ hypocrisy

Statements from pro-Brexit politicians have been blown up into posters and plastered around Dover.

The campaign escalated overnight after Theresa May’s proposed deal failed in Parliament with new posters unveiled overnight on Tuesday. Targets include Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liam Fox, and the prime minister herself.

The pro-Remain group Led By Donkeys is behind the effort and say they devised “the public information campaign to remind the public of the statements and promises made to us by our MP”.

“The news cycle is so fast nowadays, we forget what our leaders once said?” the group’s spokesperson told the Press Association.

“A busy night on the Brexit frontline. We’ve covered Dover in the historic quotes of the people responsible for this chaos”, the group added in a tweet.

May’s poster reminds passers-by of her statement from November 2016: “Remaining a member of the European Union means we will be more secure from crime and terrorism.”

Fox’s statement from 2017 saying a trade agreement “with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history” was also turned into a billboard.

The posters were also displayed in London and Essex. A 2016 quote from Michael Gove saying: “The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want,” popped up in Essex on Monday.

The statement clashed with a remark the environment secretary made in an interview with BBC4 on Tuesday, warning  “Winter is coming” if MPs reject May’s deal, which is exactly what happened Tuesday night in a crushing defeat for the prime minister.

And David Cameron’s 2015 tweet four days before the general election in which he promised “stability and strong Government” appeared in London last week.

With this new campaign, politicians now don’t have the option to simply delete a tweet.

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