Speaking at a private Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney on Wednesday night, Australia’s second longest serving Prime Minister, John Howard, made clear his unambiguous support for the “Leave” side of the British referendum on staying in the European Union.

Citing Britain’s ongoing loss of sovereignty under the EU bureaucracy, Mr Howard lamented the fact that Britain – who in his opinion gave the world its “most successful form of democracy, the Westminster system” – had abrogated its own sovereignty in favour of the stifling influence of the mandarins of Brussels.