‘We’re being ruined by Brexit’: Brexiteer lambasted after she brands applying for Irish passport ‘grubby’ ‘We’re going to struggle to put food on our table because a few of you don’t like foreigners’

A Brexiteer TV presenter was subjected to an emotional tirade during live TV by a woman angry at her suggestion that applying for an Irish passport was “mercenary” and “grubby.”

Presenter Lowri Turner was discussing the increasing numbers of British people applying for Irish passports ahead of Brexit on the Jeremy Vine on 5 show on Thursday.

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‘It’s very mercenary isn’t it’ Ms Turner said, adding: “I just think it’s a bit grubby, I don’t think it’s nice behaviour, that’s what I feel in my heart.”

“I can see the practicality, but in my heart, I just don’t like it,” she told the panel.

But when the panel took calls from viewers, her comments provoked a strong response from one caller.

Banking job moved to Dublin

Emma Collins from Surrey told the panel that she was being forced to apply for Irish citizenship as her banking job had moved to Dublin and her husband’s building firm had lost half its workforce.

“We are being ruined by Brexit. The fact that Lowri thinks we’re so unpatriotic, I mean it disgusts me because it just shows that people in the media bubble have no idea the effect that this is having on us.”

“We’re losing our jobs – thousands of jobs have gone overseas to Frankfurt or Dublin. My husband’s building company is going to be in trouble, as are many others, because there is a severe lack of labour here.”

‘Have to move to Ireland’

“I’m sorry, this really upsets me,” she said becoming audibly distraught.

“We’re going to struggle to put food on our table because a few of you don’t like foreigners. I am patriotic, I love my country and I don’t know why we’re ruining it.

“I don’t know why we want economic hardship. I don’t know why I can’t give the best to my children and I feel we’ll have to move to Ireland to give them the life I want them to have.”

“And you’re there on the telly and you’re fine. Of course you’re fine, but we’re not.”

The presenter defended herself saying she was a small business owner and did not “live in a media bubble”

22% increase in Irish passport applications

The caller went on: “People from our building company have left because they don’t like the environment. The Romanians don’t want to be here because they’d rather be in Portugal or Spain where the people are nicer, they think.”

“The banks are moving abroad to protect themselves, because of Brexit. That is a fact.”

Almost 100,000 British people applied for Irish passports, up 22 per cent year on year and nearly double the number from before the Brexit referendum. Any British person born on the island or Ireland, or who has an Irish parent or grandparent can apply for an Irish passport.