Young Brits will take the UK back into the European Union, the chief executive of Ryanair has claimed.
Michael O’Leary, the boss of Europe’s largest airline, claimed the British people had been sold a “tissue of lies” over the benefits of quitting the EU and said exiting the bloc had been “unbelievably messy”.
He dubbed Boris Johnson “completely delusional” in a fiery Q&A session, saying leaving the EU would be a “net negative” in the next five years.
O’Leary predicted that Britain will be forced to rejoin the single market within the next 15 years, arguing that demographics would support the shift.
The 62-year-old said: “In the next five to 10 years, quite a number of the Brexiteers will die, as the average age of them is about over 70. Younger people coming through are much more pro-European.”
O’Leary has been a long-standing critic of Brexit and campaigned for the “remain” vote during the 2016 referendum.
Speaking at a Bloomberg event, Mr O’Leary said: “Everything that was promised to the UK population, the sunny uplands and the ability to do trade deals everywhere around the world were shown to be a tissue of lies.”
“We mistakenly assumed there would be some kind of competence at the top of the government under Johnson and they would at least put the economy first and do a sensible deal.
“It turns out that was completely delusional, just like Johnson and the rest of his Brexit cohort.”
Related: EU chief hails post-Brexit trade deal as ‘new beginning for old friends’
