One of the architects of Tory Brexit has been caught out in a really weird deception [TWEETS]

Although less notorious than many other Tories, the MEP Daniel Hannan has played a pivotal role in recent politics. He is the man that The Financial Times referred to [paywall] as “the brains behind Brexit”. And yet his Eurosceptic stance is not the only thing he’s famous for. He’s also famous for his shameless deceptions. The weirdest of these having been thrust back into the public’s attention this week.

https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/886887951623442432

What?

As Zelo Street reported last year, the photograph’s actual author said:

The photo used by Daniel Hannan on 6 May 2016 is a copy of the photo in the ‘Images of Wales’ feature on my website … I took the photo myself eighteen years ago on 20 May 1998.

Now, Andrew Lilico – the Executive Director and Principal of Europe Economics – has come to Hannan’s defence:

If you’re worried about what this may do for Lilico’s credibility, don’t be. He’d squandered that already. The Europe Economics website describes him as the man responsible for:

the ‘essential theory’ behind the [Tory/Lib-Dem] Coalition’s initial deficit reduction strategy.

Fake views

The tweet led to other people tweeting out places they have ‘visited’:

https://twitter.com/JSandlerClarke/status/886896617726631938

Just had a most enjoyable walk through Bristol's leafy suburbs with Dan Hannan. pic.twitter.com/OOAYGFfAW4

— The Kwisatz Hackenbush (@DocHackenbush) July 17, 2017

https://twitter.com/laurencedata/status/887035092614475782

A history of nonsense

Before Brexit, Hannan famously said:

Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market

Something that panned out as being blatantly false.

After Brexit, Hannan was criticised by Newsnight presenter Evan Davis for the “change of tone on freedom of movement”. Hannan was by then saying that freedom of movement with the EU could continue, although EU citizens would lose some legal entitlements. Davis responded:

Why didn’t you say this in the campaign? Why didn’t you say in the campaign that you were wanting a scheme where we have free movement of labour?

The New Statesman even had a regular column documenting the nonsense that Hannan came out with. In it, they once commented on this now deleted tweet:

The obvious problem is that claiming a hard Brexit will offer limitless riches is at odds with pretty much everyone. Although there’s a good chance he only deleted it because it reminded people that Vote Leave had long abandoned the £350m proposal.

Another now deleted tweet showed Hannan’s ignorance of this thing called ‘the British Empire’:

Although credit where credit’s due, he did at least use his own photo. Unless he’s found a body double.

Deception

Although there has always been a left argument for Brexit, there was little chance of implementing it given that the Tories were in power. Especially as the party contains people like Daniel Hannan. A man who walked people up the garden path, and then posted a picture of someone else’s garden to boast about getting away with it (#metaphor).

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Featured image via Wikimedia