Billionaire George Soros is pledging an additional £100k to his anti-Brexit campaign.
Hitting back at the “toxic” criticism he received last week, he now says that engineering a “mere reversal” of the EU referendum result is not enough.
Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OFS) has pledged to match a crowdfunded ‘Fight Brexit Fund’ set up in the wake of attacks against him.
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Last week it was revealed he had donated £400,000 to ‘Best for Britain’, which is currently campaigning for a second vote to be held on any final Brexit deal agreed between Parliament and the EU.
The Sun reports: The highly-influential investor has already been slammed for donating £400,000 to pro-EU group Best for Britain as part of his crusade against Brexit.
But now it has emerged his OFS Foundation has also pledged to match crowdfunding of up to £100,000.
The group’s CEO Eloise Todd said Brexit could still be stopped by a meaningful vote in Parliament.
She explained: “The UK’s future with the EU is not a done deal, there is still a vote to come and people across the country deserve to know the truth about the options on the table: one of which is staying and leading in the EU.”
Hungarian-born Soros wrote yesterday that historic vote to leave was a “tragic mistake”, and has hit back at what he calls the “toxic personal criticism” he received this week.
And writing in the Mail on Sunday he also denied accusations he was “undermining democracy”, and said he wanted to build momentum to reverse the decision to leave the EU.
The 87-year-old, one of the world’s richest men, infamously made a billion dollars betting against the pound on so-called “Black Wednesday”, when the UK’s economy collapsed in 1992.
But he set out his love for the UK in his article today, referring back to his time living here as a child after fleeing Hungary to escape the Nazis.
He said that was when he became a “confirmed Anglophile”, and it was at the London School of Economics where he met Austrian philosopher Karl Popper.
Mr Soros writes: “Under his influence I came to distinguish between an open society – in which people elect their leaders, who are supposed to serve the interests of their electorate – and a closed society, in which rulers exploit the people under their control.”
And he said this was why he decided to start his Open Society Foundations and support group like Best For Britain, who want to reverse the will of the people and keep Britain in the EU.
Mr Soros added: “I consider Brexit a tragic mistake.”
He said “allowing a referendum on membership was a fatal error”, and said Brexit is a “lose-lose proposition both for Britain and for Europe”.
And the 87-year-old said outside the EU the UK “will lose much of its global influence”, which is why he supported Best for Britain to try and build momentum against it.
He added: “Since Brexit is a lose-lose proposition, it follows that a parliamentary vote to stop Brexit would be its opposite.
“But a mere reversal of the 52:48 majority for Brexit is not enough.
“The majority for staying would have to be significantly larger to convince Europe that Britain’s attitude towards Europe has fundamentally changed and its decision deserves to be taken seriously.”
He also claimed Brexit had turned young against old, saying young people had become disillusioned with democracy after older votes “overruled” them in the referendum.
Mr Soros’s donation to Best for Britain was first reported last week, in a story written by a team including the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy.
Niamh Harris
Can somebody get this ugly piece of garbage out of out politics ,in fact out of everyones politics,am sure you all must agree if this shitehose wants us to stay in the E U then we definitely need to get the hell out of there PRONTO