On Thursday 5th April 2018, the Time to Talk Association and the IWM talked to the German-born, ex-Labour MP and former Vote Leave chair, Gisela Stuart, about the UK and Europe.
About the debate:
What does it take for a politician who was one of two UK parliamentary representatives to the European Convention and a member of the Presidum of the European Convention, tasked with shaping the vision for a future European Union, to turn into a passionate and leading advocate for Brexit? What leads to someone who was born and grew up in Germany and who has personally acknowledged her debt to the freedoms acquired through the emergence of the European Communities wanting to politically divorce Britain from the rest of the continent? More generally, what is it that has led politicians on the left to endorse and campaign for a Brexit which is generally associated with the conservative right – what has changed in Europe that has led to many feeling that they can longer advocate political integration?
To find out more about this in-depth conversation with Gisela Stuart and to get a direct and personal insight into the processess that are shaping the futures of both the UK and the European Union, either watch the video highlights at the top of this page or listen to the full-length podcast below.
Click below to listen to a full-length podcast of the debate:
A full-length video of the debate can also be accessed by clicking here.
Participants:
Speaker:
Gisela Stuart
Born and raised in Bavaria, Germany, Gisela Stuart is a former UK MP (Labour party, Edgbaston 1997 – 2017). From 2001-2003, she was one of two UK parliamentary representatives to the European Convention and one of thirteen members of said Convention’s Presidium, tasked with drawing up a new constitution for the European Union. Yet, in 2016, Stuart became the chair of the Vote Leave campaign, which paved the way for the vote to leave the European Union in the UK’s Brexit referendum. Since September 2016, Stuart has served as the chair of Vote Leave’s successor organisation, Change Britain.
Chairs:
Christian Ultsch
Head of the Foreign Politics Department, Die Presse
Ivan Krastev – Bulgarian Political Scientist and Commentator, currently Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Organisers and supporters:
This debate was organised by Time to Talk and the IWM in cooperation with Die Presse and with the kind support of the Open Society Initiative for Europe and Energieversorgung Niederösterreich.
