University of Swansea sociology lecturer Ashley Frawley joined Express.co.uk podcast Brexit the Final Countdown to discuss last night’s election TV debate and the ongoing Brexit process. Ms Frawley revealed that one of the reasons she was “really against the EU” is because she had spent a large portion of time in Greece. The sociology expert called out the “left-wing love” for the EU as indicative of their “inconsistency”.

She said: “What’s interesting is that when there was that referendum in Greece, if you talked to people out on the street, they didn’t care.

“The scaremongering about ‘if you don’t do this, terrible things are going to happen’, they didn’t care.

“They wanted out of the EU.

“They wanted to make their own way and they were willing to accept that terrible things might happen.”

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Ms Frawley continued: “But at least it would them doing it to themselves.

“And I don’t mean that in this self-harm way.

“They were being harmed by the Troika, they were being harmed by the policies and it’s not even for their benefit.

“At least, if they’re going to go through austerity, it should be to come out with something better for the people of Greece at the end of it.”

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She added: “And that is not what was going to happen.

“People were quite aware that it was to save the European project, it was not to save themselves.

“What I think is really interesting is that this left-wing love for the EU has total amnesia for what happened in Greece.”

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The sociology lecturer said: “It betrays this inconsistency when people will say ‘look what happened in Greece’ and then all of a sudden go ‘oh well they deserved it’.

“Or the same people who say economic growth isn’t the be-all and end-all, there’s more to life than money, the government should focus on happiness.

“And then Brexit comes and they say ‘oh it’s going to hit growth, you didn’t vote to be poorer’.

“Well, you know what? You didn’t care about my living standards before.

“Suddenly you’re worried about economic growth. I don’t buy it for a second.”

Greece was facing a government-debt crisis in the aftermath of th 2008 financial crisis.

The country experienced a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that led to impoverishment and loss of income and property.

In 2015, Greece held a referendum to decide wether to accept the bailout plan submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The bailout conditions were rejected by a majority of over 61 percent to 39 percent, with the ’No’ winning in all of Greece’s regions.

Despite the referendum result, the later country reached an agreement with the EU for its bailout, placing austerity conditions on Greece.

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