Graham Fagg was pictured with French counterpart Philippe Cozette on December 1, 1990, 100 metres below sea level as they broke through the final section of rock separating the English and French sides. Scarcely four years later, the Queen and then-French President Francois Mitterrand performed a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new rail link in what is now known as Eurotunnel. Speaking before the 25th anniversary of the tunnel’s opening on May 6, 1994, Mr Fagg, now 70, said: “I worked on the Channel Tunnel and done the breakthrough, but I actually voted for Brexit.
“But I don’t see that it’s incompatible.”
Mr Fagg explained he backed the European Economic Community – the entity which was to become the EU – in the 1975 referendum but did not realise it would eventually become a political union.
He told AFP: “We voted for a trade deal.
“I can’t remember anybody ever saying to me, ‘we’re going to turn it into a federal Europe.
“We’re going to set all the rules and you’ve got to obey them.”
Since it first opening, Eurotunnel has been used by almost 430 million passengers and 86 million vehicles.
Mr Fagg, who lives in Dover, where 62 percent of people backed Brexit three years ago, remains proud of the achievement in constructing the 50-mile long tunnel.
He said: “The faster we went, the more money we got.”
His name was selected at random for the famous photograph, Mr Fagg said, adding: “I thought I was going up to the office to get told off about something, but in actual fact, they said ‘tomorrow you’re doing the breakthrough’.
“I was a bit surprised because it was my day off and I had other plans.
“It was a historical moment. The whole project was a historical moment.
“It involved five years of my life, so it’s going to remain with you.”
He stressed he wanted Britain to retain close links with Europe after Brexit, and he remains friends with Mr Cozette, even though neither speaks the other’s native language.
Mr Cozette, 66, said: “The links between the French and English coasts have always existed
“I do not think it will drive the British and French apart.
“Graham Fagg greeted me in me French: ‘Bonjour, mon ami’. I told him in English ‘Welcome to France,’ since we were on the French side.”
(Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg)