Fergus Finlay: Brexit Britain's response to Ukraine crisis is an international joke

The people of Britain have made it clear they want to help but the generals who led the country into Brexit are incapable of seeing outside the blinkers that they wear

US president Joe Biden, Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson, and France’s president Emmanuel Macron share a light moment ahead of the start of a G7 summit last month. Picture: Getty

More and more I believe that for Britain, the end of history is at hand. To put it another way, when the history of this century is written, Brexit will be seen to have been a terrible mistake that doomed ‘Great Britain’ to irrelevance.

Over time, its economy will dwindle, its people will become more and more disenfranchised, its leadership (especially if it remains as it is now) will come to be seen as an international joke.

It’s a tragedy. Throughout its history Britain has had a profound impact on the world. Of course, it wasn’t always a positive one, and its mistakes (and cruelties) were as great as its achievements. But it left a mark everywhere. I think it’s true to say that this would be an entirely different world today if it weren’t for the leadership, courage and doggedness shown by Britain and its people during the Second World War.

In all sorts of ways that have nothing to do with global politics, Britain has enriched us. Its writers, actors, musicians, creative artists, sports people (maybe not the English rugby team!) have made lasting impressions on us all.

And it is a beautiful, friendly, hospitable country. Some of the best times we’ve ever had have been in places like Cornwall and parts of Scotland. London is a city of endless fascination. I love Blackpool, where my brother lived, and its nearby Lake District. Some of my favourite in-laws are English or have lived there all their lives.

So I don’t feel like sneering or belittling the heritage and history of our nearest neighbour. But I don’t know if you saw a couple of things recently that really hammered home the point of decline.

Matt Hancock resigned as health secretary in a letter to Boris Johnson where he says the Government 'owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down'. 

There’s a British MP called Matt Hancock. He ran the health system in Britain during most of Covid, until he resigned after being caught on camera canoodling with a woman who was not his wife. In his office. He didn’t know there were cameras in his office.

That’s how thick he is. If you need more proof, there’s a now-notorious WhatsApp exchange between Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings in which the prime minister refers to Hancock, the man he put in charge of the health service during a global pandemic, as “totally fucking hopeless”. (It’s like the ultimate in a bad school report, isn’t it, when Boris Johnson says that about you?)

So this hapless chap was being interviewed on telly the other night about the fact the Tory MPs were all backing away from their motion of no confidence in Boris over his crazy and dishonest carry-on over endless partying while people were dying of Covid. “Of course,” said he (I’m paraphrasing slightly). "All that party stuff has to be viewed in the context of the war in Ukraine."

As if that wasn’t mind-boggling enough, he then went on to claim that Boris Johnson was spearheading the global response to the war in Ukraine, providing the highest possible level of international leadership.

Compare that grovelling lapdog interview with the footage of Johnson at the Nato summit. There are two video clips of the moment when the leaders arrive. There’s a short one, that was put on social media to make fun of Johnson. It shows him wandering aimlessly around, being studiously ignored, like an overgrown schoolboy in a room full of adults.

There’s a longer one — the official one — which shows Johnson getting a couple of handshakes, and then wandering aimlessly around, being studiously ignored, like an overgrown schoolboy in a room full of adults.

It could hardly have been clearer that the rest of them had little or no interest in being seen next to Johnson — let alone taking seriously anything he might have to say.

Johnson v Churchill

Johnson’s hero, apparently, is Winston Churchill. The contrast between then and now was painfully clear. But what makes the connection between Brexit and Britain’s growing irrelevance even starker is the official British response to the refugee crisis.

Newspapers at the weekend reported that the British government was going to establish more “welcome hubs” (there are a few already) to ease the entry of refugees. Since the invasion of Ukraine began, Britain has issued fewer than 30,000 visas to Ukrainian refugees — and 90% of them have been issued to people who already have family in Britain. No other country in Europe is demanding visas.

In fact, no government in Europe has done less to help. Some 90,000 families in the poorest country in Europe, Moldova, (yes, it shares a border with Ukraine) have taken refugees into their homes. All across Europe, governments have relaxed visa rules and poured scarce resources into a massive humanitarian effort.

But in Britain, Brexit rules. Under Johnson’s leadership, Britain decided to take back control of its own destiny, control its own borders, and look after itself. It’s not a surprise that Boris Johnson a few days ago compared Ukraine’s struggle for freedom with Britain’s decision to free itself from the cruel yoke of European membership.

Refugees who have fled Ukraine wait to cross the border in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. Picture: AP Photo/Sergei Grits

That’s why thousands of British families who have offered to take refugees are still waiting. It’s why international charities are in despair. Here’s a quote from last Sunday’s Observer: “The Refugee Council, the British Red Cross, Save the Children and Oxfam said the visa system was causing great distress to already traumatised Ukrainians.”

Why is Britain alone in insisting on visas for Ukrainian refugees? Brexit is the real reason — everyone knows that. But the British home secretary Priti Patel has claimed another reason. “I’m afraid it is naive and misguided to think that only men can be covert operatives,” she told a Tory gathering last week. She went on: “Or that refugee flows would not be subject to some form of exploitation.”

Yes. Britain, alone of all the countries in Europe, has decided that among the traumatised and often bereaved women and children arriving in Britain there could be some cunning Russian operatives, armed to the teeth with poisons and radioactive weapons, to cause havoc among the innocent Brits. That’s why, even if you’ve lost everything in a brutal war, you’ll still be turned back at Calais unless you have your paperwork right.

The likelihood of terrorist women or children from Ukraine might seem far-fetched to us, or to the leaders of France, Germany, or Spain. But that’s what Brexit does for you. Any excuse for inaction or for selfishness will do. And it will be offered by the same leaders who continuously assert how wonderful Britain is — how far-seeing, how generous, how inspired in its leadership. They have an astonishing ability to talk from both sides of their mouths.

In a few short years, Britain has gone from being a recognised world leader to an inward-looking, claustrophobic and closed version of its former self. 

The phrase “lions led by donkeys” dates from the First World War. It is often used to contrast the bravery of ordinary troops with the incompetence of their generals. The people of Britain have made it clear again and again that they want to help. But the generals who led Britain into Brexit are incapable of seeing outside the blinkers that donkeys wear.