No 10’s lurid claims: Phone bills will soar – oh and crime will rise too!

BREXIT could cause mobile phone charges and air fares to soar and expose the country to a greater risk of crime, civil servants warned yesterday.

A white paper on European reform, entitled The Best Of Both Worlds and backed by the Prime Minister, warns of a bleak future outside the European Union, with fewer jobs, higher prices and reduced financial security.

The document, funded by the taxpayer, says that Britain would have less influence on the world stage and would not be able to take as tough a stance against the threat of terrorism.

It also suggests the UK would no longer have access to an EU-wide database of 300,000 murderers, terrorists and paedophiles – and concludes we are ‘stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU’.

Leave campaigners last night attacked the white paper as propaganda and accused it of making a series of ‘lurid and fantastical claims’ about the EU.

But the Government paper, which has a foreword by David Cameron, said the interests of every family, and every business would benefit from Britain’s continued membership.

It claims that leaving the EU would deny the UK access to the single market – putting smaller businesses especially under threat.

It could hit trade, leading to lower foreign investment and worse access to non-European markets.

And it would be harder to deport foreign criminals, tackle child pornography and even people trafficking, it says.

The report concludes: ‘The Government’s view is that the UK’s national interest – the interests of every family, household, business, community, region and nation within our United Kingdom – is best served by our country remaining in a reformed EU.’

The paper also claims that the Prime Minister’s deal with the EU on welfare will save billions.

It quotes figures showing that recent European migrants claim 10 per cent of in-work benefits for low-paid workers, even though they make up only 6 per cent of the UK workforce.

Of the £25billion spent on in-work benefits for low-paid workers in 2013/14, about £2.5billion went to migrants from the European Economic Area – the EU plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

In a section on trade, it claims that Britain’s membership of the single market ‘allows the UK to keep costs down for UK-based businesses and consumers, for example, by cutting the cost of mobile roaming charges and passenger air fares throughout Europe’.

The report claims that EU membership allows us to attract international investment into the UK as well as taking advantage of the ‘EU’s greater economic leverage’ to negotiate advantageous free trade agreements with countries outside the EU.

‘For the British people this means more jobs being created, greater financial security and lower prices,’ it states.

The document goes on to claim that Britain is safer in the EU because membership ‘enhances our ability to cooperate in combating crime and terrorism’.

For example, it says, the European Arrest Warrant ‘makes it easier to extradite for- eign suspects back to where they are wanted for crimes – and bring suspects back to the UK to face justice for crimes committed here’.

Europol, the EU’s law enforcement cooperation body, ‘currently led by a British figure’, has been successfully used ‘to tackle cybercrime, child pornography, drug and people trafficking across the EU’.

The report also highlights the EU’s watch list system, which gives Britain access to alerts on 300,000 wanted or missing people, such as suspected terrorists, murders and paedophiles, and many foreign fighters.

The white paper also claims that EU membership makes Britain stronger because it ‘gives us more influence on the world stage’, such as by cooperating on sanctions against russia and Iran, helping tackle the ebola crisis in Africa, and by reaching a climate deal in Paris.

It states: ‘The unique nature of our membership of the EU gives the UK a special status within the organisation: a status that no arrangement outside the EU could match.

‘This is the best of both worlds – offering us key benefits for jobs and growth that we could not have outside the EU, but the freedom to choose not to take part in other activities, which are not in the UK’s interests.

‘Membership of the reformed EU offers opportunity and security: for jobs, investment, doing business, as well as for tackling crime and dealing with global issues such as climate change and terrorism.

‘We are stronger, safer and better off in the EU, compared to years of disruption and the uncertainty of leaving for an unknown destination outside.’

However, robert Oxley, spokesman for campaign group Vote Leave, said: ‘The Government shouldn’t be using taxpayers’ money to try and sell its hollow deal to the British people.

‘Brussels already costs us enough without having to pay for civil servants to campaign in favour of staying in the EU.

‘Having failed to secure the fundamental changes or legally binding status that he promised, it’s disappointing to see the PM resorting so quickly to trying to scare people into voting for his deal.

‘The document is taxpayer-funded propaganda that contains a number of lurid and fantastical claims about the EU.’

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