Jim Armitage: 'Brexit martyr' John Longworth's resignation was cunning

John Longworth is, I’m sure, a decent and principled man.

Given his fiercely anti-EU feelings, the newly departed head of the British Chambers of Commerce felt incapable of sticking to his employers’ neutral line on Brexit, and knew he had to speak his view — that Britain was better “out”.

He had every right to do that, of course, but not in his capacity as head of the BCC. And not at its heavily politicised conference, thick with TV cameras and scribbling journalists.

The conflicts with his day job were several: not only had his board wanted to remain neutral on Brexit, but 60% of his members want to stay “in”.

As such, he must have known before he began lobbying off-piste that he was compromising his day job.

I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing. Just look at the end result: now he’s resigned so loudly, he’s given a major coup to the Brexit camp and his arguments are receiving acres of media coverage.

Ask yourself this: would the public have ever have heard of Longworth before he made himself the “Brexit martyr”, or cared what he had to say?

A decent and principled man, then… but canny too.