This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Sir Vince Cable has criticised older voters who see economic pain as a price worth paying for leaving the EU, saying those who think of themselves as “Brexit martyrs” are shafting young people.

The Liberal Democrat leader said it was dangerous to see those people as martyrs because they would not be the ones to suffer most from the effects of Brexit.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he claimed older Brexit voters with views “coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past” had imposed their will on younger generations more comfortable with the EU.



His strongly worded attack came after a YouGov poll suggested 61% of leave voters would consider significant damage to the British economy to be a price worth paying for leaving the EU.

“To describe such masochism as ‘martyrdom’ is dangerous. We haven’t yet heard about ‘Brexit jihadis’, but there is an undercurrent of violence in the language, which is troubling,” he said.

The former business secretary added that the self-declared martyrs appeared to be predominantly elderly. “The martyrdom of the old comes cheap, since few have jobs to lose,” he said.

Cable also said problems with the housing market, pensions and government policies to protect benefits for older people, including some enacted while he was in the cabinet, had contributed to a growing rift between the generations.



“The old have comprehensively shafted the young. And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a worldview coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe,” he said.

His attack on older supporters of Brexit came amid reports that the government may be willing to compromise over the EU’s demand for an exit bill to settle the UK’s financial obligations.

Several UK sources told the Sunday Telegraph that Theresa May would be prepared to pay about €40bn (£36bn) as part of a deal to strike a comprehensive free-trade agreement with the EU.



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That is lower than the €60bn demanded by Brussels and the “actual bottom line” of €50bn, but one source told the newspaper that the UK’s position was €30bn and “the landing zone is €40bn, even if the public and politicians are not all there yet”.



But the Sunday Telegraph reported that the government would only agree to pay that sum if the EU treated it as part of a deal on future relations, including the comprehensive trade agreement sought by the prime minister.

A figure of about €40bn would equate to paying towards the EU’s budget for a transitional period after leaving, but the “divorce bill” has been one of the main stumbling blocks in negotiations between the government and Brussels.

The EU’s stance is that trade talks cannot begin until significant progress has been made on the financial settlement, citizens’ rights and Northern Ireland.

The government refused to comment on the figure, but referred to remarks by David Davis, the Brexit secretary, that the government would work with Brussels “to determine a fair settlement of the UK’s rights and obligations”.



In contrast, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, last month told the House of Commons that the EU can “go whistle” if it makes extortionate financial demands of the UK.