Bid launched to rename Brussels sprouts after Brexit vote
A POLITICIAN has called for Brussels sprouts to be renamed '˜Westminster Growths' after Brits voted for Brexit.
Andrew Simpson, 54, the Eccentric Party of Great Britain’s spokesman for ‘chocolate, rhubarb and sprouts’, has put forward the suggestion as the UK detaches itself from the European Union.
Mr Simpson, from Wakefield, West Yorks, said: “When we withdraw from the EU can we still call them Brussels sprouts?
“We aren’t linked to Brussels anymore so will need a more appropriate name for them and maybe they should be called Westminster growths.”
Mr Simpson, who plans to stand in the next General Election, said the Eccentric Party didn’t officially pick a side in the EU referendum, but came up with a suitably whimsical way to determine how members should vote.
He said: “We had a talk and decided you should vote depending on your bellybutton. If you had an innie then you voted in, if you had an outie then you voted out.
“Mine’s an innie but I voted out anyway.”
However Mr Simpson, who owns his own sweet shop where he sells chocolate Brussels sprouts at Christmas, said he won’t be renaming his famous festive treats Westminster growth until it has been approved by the public.
He said: “If we are voted in then we need to have a set of policies that we can carry out.
“We can’t change anything until we are voted in.”
Mr Simpson, who runs Emily’s Traditional Sweets at the Elsecar Heritage Centre in Barnsley, South Yorks, hopes his new spokesman role will propel him to being made the face of rhubarb in the UK.
He said: “Wakefield is part of the rhubarb triangle, which is why I have been made the spokesman for chocolate, sprouts and rhubarb.
“I’m hoping this year they are going to make me the face of rhubarb and if I’m ever elected I will be looking after all the rhubarb farmers because that’s what the voters want.”
The Eccentric Party, which is an official party registered with the Electoral Commission, was set up by the former Monster Raving Loony Party member Lord Toby Jug in 2015.
The party has put forward other policies, including; requiring people to read a book for every 10 selfies they take, nationalising crime to make sure it doesn’t pay and leaving bottles of beer on all beaches, so that any invading army would abandon its attack and get drunk while the broken bottles would prevent the army advancing any further.
Mr Simpson, who is married to Gillian, 52, and is dad to Emily, 17, and Paul, 26, said: “We are a proper protest vote. I stood in the local elections and people are voting for me because they didn’t want any of the alternatives.”
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