Let's embalm Nigel Farage and put him in the new ‘Museum of Brexit’, says Cabinet minister Liz Truss
Nigel Farage “can be embalmed like those Soviet leaders” and put into a new Museum of Brexit, Chief secretary of the Treasury Liz Truss tells Chopper’s Brexit Podcast today.
The former Ukip leader – along with the famous Vote Leave bus with its claim that Brexit will deliver £350million a week for the NHS – are Ms Truss’s recommendations for inclusion in the new museum.
Ms Truss says: "What you are asking me is a bit like Room 101 -what would you put in it. There are a few things from the campaign, may be a Cornish pasty, some leeks and of course the bus."
She adds that perhaps Mr Farage "can be embalmed, like those Soviet leaders" and included in the museum.
Ms Truss makes clear that Brexit will not be delayed to allow for second referendum on the terms of Brexit, saying: "Everyone in my constituency says 'please get on with it', and that is what we are doing."
Ms Truss also criticises a "computer says no" approach at the Home Office when has left more than 100 Windrush citizens unsure of their immigration status.
She says: "The Prime Minister and Home Secretary have given very full apologies about the truly dreadful situation people found themselves in.
"It is appalling that people who fought for his country during the war, have contributed to rebuilding Britain after the war, face that kind of computer says no attitude from the Home Office. That has to stop."
Ms Truss also set her face against calls for a hypothecated tax to fund the National Health Service. She says: "They are a bad thing. If you had a hypothecated tax going into the NHS in the late 2000s, and we got the economic downturn when National Insurance receipts went down, that would have meant less money for the NHS.
"I believe in a tax-funded NHS that is funded from general taxation - that is what makes sense."
Asked if pensioners who work should pay National Insurance to fund the NHS, she adds: "This is not a policy the government has at all. Those people have contributed throughout their lives and I think it is a good thing that people are working beyond the current retirement age."
Other guests on Chopper’s Brexit Podcast, presented by Christopher Hope, The Telegraph’s Chief Political Correspondent, include Gawain Towler, former Ukip spokesman and the secretary of the new Museum.
Mr Towler says a board has been appointed and a number of sites are being scouted to host the museum and archive devoted to the UK’s 40 year membership of the European Union which ends next year.
Michael Deacon, the Telegraph’s longstanding sketchwriter who has been dubbed “Brexit’s Boswell”, and Dia Chakravarty, the Telegraph’s Brexit Editor, offer their own ideas on how to fill the museum on the podcast which was recorded in the Red Lion pub on Whitehall this week.
Tim Morris , the chief executive of the Major Ports Group which owns most of the UK’s ports, is also on the podcast to explain why trade to the UK need not be disrupted after Britain leaves the European Union in March next year.