British-Pakistani intellectual, writer and journalist, Tariq Ali, told teleSUR on Friday that the majority of British voters gave the EU “a big kick in its backside,” explaining that the majority of working class “leave” voters felt that overall the EU did not benefit them, was undemocratic and an organization for the rich and the banks.
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On the other hand, he said, right-wing “leave” supporters used xenophobia and racism to attack refugees and migrants.
He stated that “remain” campaigners did not address concerns about the EU nor did they show that they could change its structure, concluding that the campaigning by the center parties “failed completely."
“I think we now have to demand new elections, because we want a newly-elected government to carry through the negotiations—hopefully a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn and not some wing of the Conservative Party."
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He said that Corbyn made a “tactical mistake” to back the “remain” and must now unite a now divided Left and engage with popular objections to the EU. He believed that a new Labour Corbyn government could also help stop the TTIP negotiations.
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While Ali said that he was “very pleased” with the "leave" vote, the manner in which it unfolded has created a “full blown political crisis,” not just in the U.K. but in the rest of the EU, where other members will be looking to go down a similar path as the U.K.
He believed that the recent currency fluctuations would eventually settle down because the market was responding irrationally to speculations and “fulfilling their own prophecies.”