Tory big beast Ken Clarke is quitting politics after 50 years — and admits Britain CAN weather a no-deal Brexit
TORY big beast Ken Clarke yesterday revealed he is quitting politics after 50 years - as he admitted Britain can weather a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Clarke – Britain’s longest serving MP – said he has told his local party he is planning to “pack it up”.
Mr Clarke, 78, was elected to Parliament in June 1970, when Ted Heath became PM and Mungo Jerry’s In The Summertime topped the charts.
But he revealed that he does not plan to run again for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire.
He told a lunch in Westminster: “I’m minded to give it in, to pack it in.
“Because I just think in every walk of life you’ve got to decide to pack it up before people start dropping hints telling you to pack it up because you can’t do it anymore.
“You may gather that I’ve therefore firmly decided to retire and I hedge it every time I’m asked.”
Mr Clarke, a Remainer rebel ringleader, said he could try to dramatically topple the next Tory PM if he thinks they will take Britain out on a no-deal.
But he admitted the British economy will still grow if the UK crashes out of Brussels.
He said: “We’ll have some short-term chaos if we literally have no deal.
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“But you’re going to have to suffer short-term technical agreements to make sure your aeroplanes can take off, your medicines don’t run out, your food doesn’t run out.
“I don’t think the economy will collapse. We might have a short-term recession because the Bank of England are going to have fun dealing with confidence in sterling and so on in the immediate aftermath.
“In the longer term, the economy will still grow.”
He also accused Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt of not levelling with the public by threatening a no-deal on October 31.
And he compared Boris Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn, branding them “unrepresentative of the public at large.”
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