Cameron rejects TV debates on Europe
DAVID CAMERON is refusing to take part in head-to-head television debates before the European referendum, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. The Prime Minister has drawn a “red line” over the prospect of a confrontation with a Tory Eurosceptic such as Boris Johnson.
He will appear in an ITV programme about the EU with Nigel Farage on June 7, but the two men will face separate 30-minute question sessions.
It is one of two televised questionand-answer sessions that he has agreed to, it is understood. Sources close to the Prime Minister said that he “feels very strongly” that debate should not focus on the “narrow issue” of conflict in the Conservative Party.
Last night Mr Johnson made it clear that he would be prepared to debate with the Prime Minister on live television. He told The Spectator magazine: “Put it this way. I think I’d look a bit of a wimp if I said no… For me to recuse myself from the debates would be wet.” In other developments:
Mr Johnson accused Mr Cameron of “terrible dishonesty” over the true scale of EU migration, as figures released today are expected to cast new light on the numbers involved;
George Osborne admitted that the Government is making contingency plans for Brexit;
It emerged that some of the world’s biggest banking corporations have donated to the EU Remain campaign, angering Eurosceptics.
The television debate disclosure means that Mr Cameron is unlikely to take part in any head-to-head encounter with his political opponents before the referendum. It will be a blow to the BBC, which has pushed for a debate be- tween the Prime Minister and one of his Eurosceptic Cabinet colleagues, most likely Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary.
It will also infuriate the Vote Leave campaign, which does not include Mr Farage. Vote Leave, chaired by Mr Gove, has previously accused the Prime Minister of “running scared” of televised debates.
The June 7 programme with Mr Farage will be shown on ITV and hosted by Julie Etchingham, who was once caught describing Mr Cameron’s immigration policy as “extermination” when she thought her microphone was switched off.
A week earlier, on June 2, the Prime Minister will take part in a programme on Sky News, where he will be interviewed by Faisal Islam, the station’s political editor, before an audience question-and-answer session moderated by Kay Burley.
A No10 source said: “This is not simply an argument in the Conservative Party. The Stronger In campaign is a broad coalition of many political parties. We want to demonstrate the breadth of the debate rather than focus on a narrow issue in the Tory party.”
Downing Street sources said that they were still considering a proposal from the BBC but it was “unlikely” that Mr Cameron would appear on screen with opponents.
ITV and the BBC are understood to be planning a number of other programmes before the referendum in which Leave and Remain campaigners will clash.
The Telegraph is also planning to cohost a digital debate, with BuzzFeed and YouTube, in June.
DAVID CAMERON and other ministers have shown “terrible dishonesty” about the true scale of EU migration, Boris Johnson has warned amid concerns that hundreds of thousands more people have arrived than previously thought.
The Office for National Statistics will today publish a new analysis that will seek to explain why one million EU migrants came to Britain over the past five years yet around 2.25 million were given national insurance numbers.
It will reveal for the first time the number of “active” National Insurance numbers which are being used by migrants to either pay their taxes or claim benefits.
The former London mayor said there was “no question” that government estimates had been “misleading” and demanded that politicians “man up” and “take responsibility” for their open-door migration policies.
He also accused the Prime Minister of “demented” scaremongering as he mocked the idea that “World War Three and bubonic plague” would break out after Brexit.
The clashes came as Mr Johnson completed his first full day of referendum campaigning as he toured the South West on the bus for Vote Leave, the official Out campaign.
A series of stop-offs around Cornwall saw Mr Johnson pull pints at a brewery, buy local asparagus – claiming it would still be as “sprouting” and “delicious” after Brexit – and distribute leaflets.
His most serious interventions came on migration, which polls suggest is the Out campaign’s strongest topic given that voters concerned about the issue are more likely to back an exit.
Mr Johnson said he was pro-immigration but also in favour of stronger border controls as he criticised the “crazy” situation that means ministers can limit numbers from the Commonwealth but not from the EU.
“It should be controlled and there should be honesty and transparency. Politicians, if they’re going to have a pro-migration policy, should take responsibility for it, stand up and explain why they want hundreds of thousands as opposed to tens of thousands and then say it,” he said.
Discussing the migration figures, Mr Johnson said: “I think it has been mis- leading, there is no question it’s been misleading. I think politicians have been driven into this terrible dishonesty about it by the EU’s arrangements.”
He also said: “What I want is for politicians to man up, take responsibility and to give an account to people of who we want to come here and why.”
Mr Johnson criticised ministers for failing to decrease net migration to below 100,000 a year – a Tory manifesto target – but repeatedly refused to name a figure for how low numbers should be set.
He even conceded migration could rise after leaving the EU, saying: “It might be that a party or a government or politicians could persuade people if they genuinely believed that this was a good thing, that it was going to turbocharge the economy and all the rest of it.” But he insisted immigration had been too high in recent years “without consent” from voters and said ministers would have more powers to control it if Britain was outside the EU.
Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, yesterday denied he made “a mistake” of allowing too much immigration while he was in Downing Street.