Cameron: Boris knows Brexit will spell disaster for Britain
BRITISH prime minister David Cameron has claimed that Boris Johnson and his ‘Vote Leave’ allies know Britain’s economy will suffer if they leave the EU – but are trying to cover it up.
Mr Cameron told the Mail on Sunday yesterday that he gets ‘p ***** off’ with Brussels at times, but warns that, if Britain leaves, France and other nations will punish the UK for the way Brexiteers have portrayed the EU as ‘the evil empire’.
‘If you’re outside the single market, what do you think French farmers would do after we left? Say, “Oh, the poor British farmers we must give them full access to our markets”? Or will they think, “Good, we can get rid of British beef again!”
‘The Leave campaign portrays the EU as the creation of an evil empire, then turns round and says after we have left they’ll cut us an amazing trade deal. Where’s the logic?’
Mr Cameron and the campaign to stay in the EU have become increasingly worried over the past week as several polls have shown the ‘leave’ side slightly ahead.
A British exit is also the source of considerable political and business anxiety in Ireland.
Mr Cameron insists he is not blind to the EU’s flaws. ‘You’ve got people who are p ***** off with some of things it has done. I understand that: I’m one of them.’
He denied that if he loses the referendum he will have to resign.
‘I will accept the instructions of the people,’ he said.
However, he moved to heal his rift with leading ‘Vote Leave’ campaigners Mr Johnson, justice secretary Michael Gove and employment secretary Priti Patel by saying they would all be given key government roles if ‘Remain’ wins the June 23 referendum.
Meanwhile, Vote Leave leaders last night disowned far-right activists who have latched on to their campaign.
A spokesman for Vote Leave said: ‘Unfortunately there is little we can do about undesirable characters buying our merchandise and distributing it. We do not want to be associated in any way with such people.’
The British prime minister warned families they faced the ‘clear and present danger’ of a hike of nearly £1,000 per year in their mortgage bills if Britain votes to leave the EU later this month.
He said a UK Treasury analysis had concluded that Brexit would cause such a shock to the economy that banks would be forced to tighten credit conditions, leading to a rise in mortgage rates.
‘Nearly all experts agree there will be instant shocks to the economy if we leave the EU and there is a clear and present danger of higher mortgage rates,’ Mr Cameron told the MoS.
Mr Cameron said the Treasury had found that tighter credit conditions would add 0.7% to mortgage rates, or £920 on the annual cost of the average loan.
After a week dominated by rows over spiralling immigration rates, which played to the advantage of the Leave campaign, Mr Cameron tried to return the economy to centre stage by focusing on the direct impact of a Brexit on households.
Downing Street believes the best chance of winning comes from playing on voters’ nervousness about the economic consequences of leaving the EU – a tactic that has been derided by the Leave camp as ‘scaremongering’.
‘People are p ***** off – I’m one of them’ ‘EU is being portrayed as an evil empire’
On Friday, Mr Gove launched an dramatic attack on Mr Cameron for the ‘depressing’ strategy that he called an ‘exercise in trying to scare you into not following through what you know in your heart to be right’ and a ‘depressing litany of projections about World War III and global Brexit recession’.
He said the EU was a ‘job-destroying machine’ and insisted UK taxpayers’ money should not be going to ‘invincibly arrogant’ Eurocrats.