The British author of the European Union’s exit clause has predicted no-one country will be “as stupid as us” in voting to leave the bloc, and that in 10 or 20 years the British will crawl back to Brussels with “our tail between our legs”.

Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, born John Olav Kerr, is a career Diplomatic Service apparatchik who has been elevated to the House of Lords and enjoyed a number of lucrative directorships since his retirement, helped to author Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty — the legal mechanism for exiting the European Union which never expected anyone to use.

The “last great benefit” of Britain’s exit from the EU, he told The Times, is that the “nasty and rebarbative” negotiations which will take place during the 2020 transition period “will ensure that no one will be as stupid as us again”.

“As it becomes clear that the negotiations will not end happily, people will tend to blame the foreigners,” he predicted, showcasing his rather uncharitable view of the British people.

“We will hear, ‘They’re being intransigent, they’re messing up our Brexit’, when all they are doing is defending the interests of the 27 [remaining EU member-states].”

Ultimately, however, Kerr believes the United Kingdom will return to the EU fold — albeit as a thoroughly chastened and grovelling supplicant.

“My children will certainly see us back in again,” he predicted confidently.

“It will take quite a long time — 10 to 20 years — before we say, with our tail between our legs, ‘Can we come back now?’”

MSM Push Anti-Brexit Article 50 Author Lord Kerr, Who Said UK Needs Migrants Because Brits ‘So Bloody Stupid’

https://t.co/EbITBrs5uJ — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 10, 2017

It is not the first time Kerr, a former Permanent Representative to the European Union — in effect an ambassador — has expressed a decidedly low opinion of the British general public’s intelligence.

“In my view, immigration is the thing that keeps this country running,” the privately-educated globalist pronounced in late 2016.

“We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people, young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time.”

Kerr’s derisive outburst prompted right-leaning commentator Quentin Letts to declare him “the authentic, drawling voice of the European elite”.

“For decades he had been a leading proponent of the European superstate,” Letts pointed out.

“He was ambassador to the EU and helped to write the EU constitution (including Article 50, its exit route). He is now having to watch the whole caboodle run smack into a wall.

“The poor fellow’s cosy little world has imploded.”

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery