- University Vice Chancellor blasts Brexit campaign as an “Alice in Wonderland” world
- Cambridge “stunning backdrop” for global show
The network’s prime time business programme, Quest Means Business, was in town to cover the build up to next week’s EU referendum. Anchor Richard Quest presented his hour long show from the lawn outside King’s College.
An interview with Labour MP Keith Vaz kicked off proceedings, before Quest was joined by a group of students representing the Leave and Remain camps, including CUSU President, Priscilla Mensah – who spoke in favour of staying. In-depth interviews with Vice Chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, and Dame Athene Donald, master of Churchill College also featured.
Vaz acknowledged that the Remain campaign had lost momentum, but told Quest that the fightback would begin in earnest on Wednesday.
Borysiewicz expressed alarm at the prospect that European funding will disappear in the event of a Brexit vote. He rejects the Leave campaign’s assertion that the shortfall will be made up by the UK government. “They seem to have spent the money five or six times over,” he told Quest. “Anybody in higher education doesn’t think there will be much left over for this sector.” Borysiewicz went on the describe the Brexit campaign as an “Alice in Wonderland” world “lurching” into uncertainty.
Dame Athene Donald told Quest of her fervent hope that the Brexit campaign fails. “I am terrified we are going to leave, I really am,” she explained. “The knock-on effects can be catastrophic and unimaginable for the whole of Europe.”
Quest and his crew are travelling the UK in a 1970s Bedford campervan dating back to the UK’s last referendum on Europe. Cambridge was the second stop on a tour that will continue throughout the week.
The Liverpool-born journalist, now based in New York, said: “Cambridge was a stunning backdrop for our show, and it was nice to be able to show it off to the world. While the majority we spoke to here were in favour of remaining in the EU, no one doubts that the vote is far, far too close to call. The vote I cast on June 23 may be the most important in my life, because it could change everything.”
Quest’s tour will continue on CNN International at 9pm every evening this week.
*******
Tess Atkinson
Communications Coordinator
Press Office, CNN International
16 Great Marlborough Street
London W1F 7HS
+442076930942
+447854048689