Gordon Brown compares Welsh independence movement to Donald Trump

Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has compared Welsh independence to Donald Trump.

He made the comparison with the 45th president of the United States, who was recently replaced by Joe Biden, after he was asked if he ever bought the argument that Boris Johnson is Britain’s Trump on Radio 4’s PM programme.

Grassroots pro-independence group YesCymru has described the remarks as “disingenuous”, said he has “a moral, ethical duty to the truth” and that he should “act accordingly”.

According to a YouGov opinion poll 51 per cent of Labour supporters in Wales back independence.

Mr Brown said: “I think there are elements of populist nationalism in Brexit, in Scottish nationalism, Welsh nationalism, in Irish nationalism as there are elements of populist nationalism which are probably overemphasised by President Trump.

“You might call it defensive nationalism after 2010. People retreated into their silos on international cooperation and everything else.”

‘Aggressive’ 

He added: “Then I think two or three years ago we had a far more aggressive nationalism, blaming someone else, blaming other people for what went wrong, blaming immigrants, blaming people who are minorities for what’s happening and that is a very aggressive form of nationalism.

“But I think until we realise you’ve got to fight nationalism and you’ve got to particularly fight this brand of populist nationalism which distorts the truth and you don’t even have a basis of fact and science and reason on which to work from.

“Until we fight that we cannot have a united society and we cannot build inclusive and settled communities around the world.”

YesCymru said: “Gordon Brown couldn’t have been any more disingenuous about Welsh and Scottish independence than he was on ‪@BBCRadio4’s PM this evening.

“He has a moral, ethical duty to the truth. He should act accordingly.”