Ryanair boss calls Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn ‘idiots’ and says Brexit should be reversed

Exclusive: ‘I hope in time there may be a second referendum or a general election that reverses Brexit,’ Michael O’Leary tells The Independent

Days before the UK is set to leave the European Union (EU), the boss of Ryanair has lambasted Theresa May’s government – and the Labour opposition.

Michael O’Leary, who has led Ryanair from a small and struggling Irish regional airline to the biggest budget carrier in Europe, predicted that parliament would “fudge their way into approving Theresa May’s deal”.

Speaking in Brussels, he told The Independent: “That’s probably the best short-term outcome, in that the can would be kicked down the road for another 21 months to December 2020.”

But the airline’s chief executive warned: “It doesn’t resolve any of the fundamental issues. And that is: the same people – Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liam Fox – who were promising us for the last two years that this trade deal will be the easiest one in history, have failed to deliver anything in the last two years.

“We’ll be back here again at the end of 2020 wondering what the hell are the UK government are going to do?”

Mr O’Leary said he hopes that after a general election, “you might have some competent politicians leading both the UK government and the UK opposition parties [rather] than the idiots who are leading them now”.

Airlines have been extremely critical of the lack of certainty over Brexit. Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways’ parent company, IAG, said: “It’s shocking that we don’t have visibility over what will happen on 29 March.”

At the Airlines 4 Europe conference in Brussels, Mr Walsh said: “We do really need the politicians to resolve this.”

Both the IAG and Ryanair bosses said that Brexit-related disruption was unlikely.

But Mr O’Leary said: “There’s still over the medium term a huge question mark over how does the UK negotiate a favourable trade deal with the European Union?

“They’ve proven themselves to be pretty incompetent or pretty average negotiators over the last two years. They’ve achieved almost nothing that was promised by the Brexiteers. Remember the Brexiteers promised: ‘We can leave Europe and nothing will change.’

“It’s quite clear you’re leaving Europe, you’re going to pay billions for the privilege, and if you want to trade with Europe going forward, you’re going, like Norway does, to comply with the rules and regulations and you’re going to continue to contribute to the budget.

“So why leave in the first place? But at least it has exposed the idiocy of the Brexiteer arguments which were dumb.”

Ryanair campaigned actively for a Remain vote in the June 2016 EU referendum. The airline invited British residents overseas to “fly home to vote ‘remain’” in the referendum for €19.99 (£17.20).

The Vote Leave campaign director, Dominic Cummings, said the offer was “corrupt” because it offered a discount to passengers “with the sole aim of ensuring that they vote, and vote to remain in the European Union”.

Ryanair was investigated by the Metropolitan Police but no action was taken.

Mr O’Leary has called for a “people’s vote,” saying: “I hope in time there may be a second referendum or a general election that reverses Brexit. There are more young people coming into the voting category in the UK now who I think are much more pro-European than the elderly deadwood who were much more pro-Brexit, and hopefully the decision will be reversed in due course.

“The future of the UK and the EU lies in free markets, lies in trading together in an EU single market. It’s been very good for the UK and leaving would be very damaging for the UK economy.”