Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has said he would “vehemently oppose” Britain rejoining the European Union, despite having campaigned for Remain during the 2016 referendum.

Speaking on UnHerd’s The Econoclasts, Varoufakis said his view had changed fundamentally since Brexit, arguing that the EU had become less, not more, democratic than in 2016.

“In 2016, when I was reluctantly supporting Remain, there was still some — however small — hope that the European Union could consolidate, democratize, and become a force for good in its periphery,” he said. “It has done exactly the opposite.”

Varoufakis claimed that the bloc had eroded its own achievements, arguing that the single market now “exists only by name” and that major powers such as Paris and Berlin had reshaped the rules to favor national champions. He also dismissed the EU’s Green Deal as effectively defunct, describing it as a “figment of Ursula von der Leyen’s imagination”.

In a broadside against the bloc, Varoufakis also claimed that the EU had abandoned its founding ideals. “What started life as a peace project has become a war union,” he said, adding that European leaders had “no plan for peace” in Ukraine.

The comments come as Labour attempts to align more closely with Europe. At the Munich Security Conference last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer stressed the need for closer defense ties before adding that “we are not the Britain of the Brexit years”.

The former Greek finance minister also criticized Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accusing them of lacking both ideological principles and long-term vision. He suggested that their party was seeking political advantage rather than offering a serious argument about Britain’s future relationship with Europe. “They are cynically winking at the 55–58% of the public who support rejoining,” Varoufakis said.

Varoufakis is a longtime critic of the EU. During the eurozone debt crisis, he repeatedly clashed with EU officials, accusing the bloc of enforcing a rigid “neoliberal economic doctrine” that, he argued, deepened austerity and hollowed out democratic accountability.

Earlier this month, Varoufakis warned that the EU faces an existential choice, telling Euronews that the bloc must move towards federalization or allow the euro to “disband”. His remarks came amid renewed efforts by France and Germany to deepen economic integration in an attempt to compete more effectively with major powers such as the United States and China.