Remain lead cut by migrant fears

THE Leave campaign has been boosted over the past week thanks to public concern over immigration, a poll has revealed.

Growing worries about Britain’s ability to control its borders means last week’s 13-point lead for Remain has been cut to just five.

The ORB survey found the Out side has 46 per cent of the vote share, with In on 51 per cent. It was carried out last week when official figures revealed that migration had risen to near-record levels.

Forecasts showed that immigration would add four million people to Britain’s population, and images emerged of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean in their attempts to get to Europe.

The poll boost for Leave came amid a series of attacks on David Cameron over his failure to cut migration to the tens of thousands. Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel all took aim at the Prime Minister over his broken pledge.

Sir Lynton Crosby, the strategist who masterminded Mr Cameron’s election victory last year, told the Daily Telegraph that the focus on migration in the past seven days has boosted the Leave campaign.

He said the ‘increasing focus on lack of control over immigration and associated message discipline’ had helped the case of the Leave camp. ÷ More than 300 Cambridge academics signed a letter arguing that Britain should vote Remain because ‘universities are ‘significantly helped by support and funding from the EU’.

It was published on the website of Cambridge for Europe, whose supporters include local Labour MP Daniel Zeichner, ex- Cabinet minister Charles Clarke and Dr Julie Smith, a Cambridge academic specialising in European politics.