Rattled Cameron’s bizarre rant
DAVID Cameron has made an extraordinary denial that his Government is in disarray over the EU referendum – claiming a slew of bad headlines are all the media’s fault.
The Prime Minister rejected suggestions he was taking the bitter campaign personally, and insisted that talk of splits at the top of the Tory party was just journalists ‘setting each others’ hair on fire’.
In extraordinary remarks, he said he had no regrets over the way he had conducted the bruising contest so far, and even insisted he had not made a personal attack on Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson.
Since the start of the referendum battle, Work and Pensions Secre- tary Iain Duncan Smith has resigned with a furious blast at the PM and Chancellor. And anonymous briefings have suggested fellow Out campaigner Michael Gove faces the sack when it is over.
Ministers have also clashed publicly over whether the new Living Wage is likely to drive up immigration – with Culture Secretary John Whittingdale and Commons leader Chris Grayling lining up on the opposite side of the argument to George Osborne. Debate has also raged over whether the NHS would be safer with Britain inside or outside the EU.
But Mr Cameron still insisted there was no problem, telling reporters: ‘We said there was going to be a clear Government line on Europe, which there is, and ministers are able to depart from it and make their arguments in their own
The government hasn’t stopped operating. You all go around setting each others’ hair on fire but I can’t see what the issue is
way. The world hasn’t stopped turning, the government hasn’t stopped operating.
‘you all go around setting each others’ hair on fire and getting very excited about this but it’s all a lot of processology. I can’t see what the issue is. you have got a government with a packed programme, delivering that programme – but at the same time we’re having a very important debate about Europe.’
In the House of Commons – on the day after London Mayor Mr Johnson had declared for Brexit – Mr Cameron said he personally had no ambitions left to fulfil. This was widely seen as a knifing of Mr Johnson, suggesting he had only joined the Out camp to bolster his hopes of becoming Tory leader. But in comments that will raise eye- brows at Westminster, the Prime Minister flatly denied this had been a thinly-veiled personal attack. He said: ‘When? I don’t think the words “Boris Johnson” passed my lips.’
Speaking to journalists at last week’s nuclear security summit in Washington, Mr Cameron was asked if he was taking the heated referendum campaign personally. He replied: ‘I don’t accept that at all. Read my speeches, look at what I’ve said. I’ve been making a very strong and positive argument about Britain being better off, more secure, stronger in the world if we stay in a reformed European Union.’
Critics are likely to seize on the strength of the PM’s rebuttals as a sign of mounting pressure over the vote – with the Out camp doing increasingly well in polls.