Daily Mail

NUCLEAR LETTER

It’s civil war as Gove and Boris write to PM accusing him of damaging democracy with lies over immigratio­n

- By Daniel Martin Chief Political Correspond­ent d.martin@dailymail.co.uk

MICHAEL Gove and Boris Johnson issued an extraordin­ary public challenge to David Cameron yesterday over his failure to cut immigratio­n as MPs went public to demand a leadership challenge.

With one Tory backbenche­r suggesting the PM could be ‘toast’ within days of the EU referendum, Mr Gove and Mr Johnson published a devastatin­g letter, ridiculing Mr Cameron’s target to cut immigrants to ‘tens of thousands’ and accusing him of ‘corroding public trust’.

They warned of the impact of EU free movement of people rules on public services, saying class sizes would soar and NHS waiting lists lengthen if Britain did not vote to leave on June 23.

And they claimed wages for the low-paid could fall – and that Britain’s national security could be put at risk – unless the country regained control of its borders.

With 25 days to go until polling, employment minister Priti Patel said Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, suggesting they were too wealthy to care about the effects of immigratio­n.

She did not directly name them, but said: ‘It’s shameful that those leading the pro-EU campaign fail to care for those who do not have their advantages. Their narrow self-interest fails to pay due regard to the interests of the wider public.’

And Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, warned that a vote to stay was a risk because migration in the EU was ‘ completely out of control’.

The attacks on the Prime Minister represente­d perhaps the most serious yet in a series of ‘blue on blue’ exchanges between Leave and Remain Tory campaigner­s.

The news came as one MP said he believed at least 20 letters had been sent to the Tory 1922 backbench committee calling for a noconfiden­ce vote in the Prime Minister, and Tory infighting burst into the open, with three MPs publicly suggesting they were ready to demand a no-confidence vote.

It also emerged that Mr Cameron will today join London Mayor Sadiq Khan on the Remain campaign trail – just weeks after savaging him for alleged links with extremists – to get out the Europe vote.

Mr Cameron pledged at the last election to bring annual net migration below 100,000 – but last week the latest figures put it at 330,000.

In their letter to No10, Justice Secretary Mr Gove and Mr Johnson, the former mayor of London, along with Labour MP and co-chairman of Vote Leave Gisela Stuart, challenged the PM to admit five ‘facts’ about what staying in the EU meant for Britain, including having to accept free movement, having to admit jobless migrants and having to defer to European courts on who we could remove from the country.

They said the tens of thousands promise was ‘plainly not achievable as long as the UK is a member of the EU, and the failure to keep it is corrosive of public trust in politics’. EU membership meant Britain ‘didn’t have control’ of its borders, they claimed, adding the population of Oxford to the UK every year ‘just from EU migration’ and putting strain on public services.

Yesterday, former defence secretary Liam Fox said only Brexit would make it possible to meet the net migration pledge. He added: ‘No Conservati­ve MP who was elected at the last election can fulfil our pledge to the British people – including me – if we stay in the EU.

‘I am quite sure that the Prime Minister wanted to be able to get restrictio­ns on free movement to be able to meet that target, but it wasn’t on offer. There is no reformed EU, it is a fantasy.’ But Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, claimed leaving Europe would make no difference to immigratio­n levels, adding: ‘I don’t discount it as an issue – it’s a really important issue, but it’s not going to go away if we leave the European Union.’

Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Mr Gove hit back at claims that the Leave campaign was fuelled by prejudice, saying: ‘When people fling the charge of racism, they are attacking working-class people for wanting to maintain a decent standard of living. I think that’s wrong.’

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major accused the Leave side of lying, adding: ‘They have, knowingly, told untruths about the cost of Europe. They have promised negotiatin­g gains that cannot, and will not, be delivered.

‘They have raised phantom fears that cannot be justified, puffing up their case with false statistics, unlikely scenarios and downright untruths. To mislead the British nation in this fashion – when its very future is at stake – is unforgivab­le.’

But Sir Vince Cable, the former Lib Dem business secretary, warned the ‘tens of thousands’ immigratio­n target could not be met anyway.

He said: ‘I argued throughout the Coalition that it was not sensible to have a rigid immigratio­n target that couldn’t be met. It isn’t just because of migration from the EU, you can’t control emigration from Britain.’

‘Narrow self-interest’

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