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Cummings declares Brexit 'walk in the park' at Wheeler book launch
Dominic Cummings declared Brexit negotiations were a “walk in the park” while hosting a launch event for Stuart Wheeler’s autobiography Winning Against the Odds (Quiller).
Boris Johnson’s chief advisor also said public anger was “not surprising” in a rare public appearance for his old friend Wheeler, a major backer of the Leave campaign.
Wheeler’s book, released on 26th September, tells his life story, including how the financier and devoted gambler played cards with Lord Lucan two nights before his disappearance, invented spread betting on shares and was booted out of the Tory party.
Winning Against the Odds: My Life in Gambling and Politics has been billed as “forthright, principled and always entertaining” by Quiller.
Interviewing the businessman in front of around 250 people at Carlton House Terrace in central London, a grinning Cummings asked a series of provocative questions on Brexit, the prospect of a no deal, the behavior of Remain-supporting MPs and the Supreme Court decision that stopped Johnson proroguing Parliament.
When Wheeler said Cummings was under pressure to reach a deal, he replied: “We’re not under pressure at all. The referendum was pressure, the referendum was more difficult.
"This is a walk in the park compared to the referendum. We’re enjoying this, we’re going to win, we’re going to leave.”
Following the interview, Cummings was followed into a back room by a gaggle of journalists and told them: "The MPs said we will have a referendum, we will respect the result and then they spent three years swerving all over the shop.
“It is not surprising some people are angry about it. I find it very odd that these characters are complaining that people are unhappy about their behaviour now and they also say they want a referendum.”
He went on: “If you are a bunch of politicians and say ‘we swear we are going to respect the result of a democratic vote’, and then after you lose you say, ‘we don’t want to respect that vote’, what do you expect to happen?”
