FURY OVER PLOT TO LET 1.5M TURKS INTO BRITAIN

No.10 accused of cover-up before Brexit vote

DOWNING Street was last night accused of hoodwinking voters over plans to let 1.5million Turks come to Britain. UK officials have secretly discussed visa-free access to Britain to ease an agreement with Ankara to shut down migrant routes.

Under the deal Brussels wants to grant all Turkish citizens 90-day travel rights in the Schengen zone. Although this would not apply to Britain, the leaked cables show UK officials have talked of granting the same rights to 1.5million ‘special’ Turkish passport holders.

The cables also suggest that government officials have colluded with Brussels in keeping all contentious issues off the agenda until after next

week’s EU referendum. In one message, our man in the Hague, Sir Geoffrey Adams, says the Dutch government, which holds the presidency of the EU, is proving especially helpful.

He wrote: ‘As far as the Dutch presidency was concerned, our top priority was to achieve a successful deal over renegotiation and then minimise the potential negative impact of the EU agenda on the referendum itself. The Dutch have so far lived up to our faith in their abilities on this.

‘They have on the whole been helpful to us in the context of our referendum (alerting us to tricky files and deferring issues until after 3 June) recognising their own stake in the result.’ The revelations came as: David Cameron handed over the campaign to keep Britain in the EU to Gordon Brown and Jeremy Corbyn for 48 hours amid mounting fears Labour voters will back Brexit;

Tory Cabinet minister Priti Patel accused Mr Cameron of trying to ‘terrify pensioners’ into voting Remain by warning state pensions could be hit if we leave the EU;

Mr Corbyn and other senior Labour politicians denied record migration into Britain was causing pressure on schools, the NHS and other public services.

Liam Fox accused Mr Cameron of deliberately hiding the possible risks of staying in the EU. ‘It is clear that we are not being given the full facts – this is a clear attempt to hoodwink voters about the risks of staying,’ said the Tory former defence secretary. They must now come clean and tell us what else is being withheld from the British people.’

The Prime Minister, who has championed Turkey’s membership of the EU, yesterday dismissed the claims, saying the country was not on course to join ‘until the year 3000’.

But Michael Gove said it was clear UK and EU policy for Turkey to join the EU.

‘Later this year, if EU plans are implemented, then we’ll have visa-free travel for 77million Turks throughout Europe,’ said the Justice Secretary.

‘It appears from this diplomatic telegram today that there are suggestions that some special Turkish passport holders will be allowed to come to the UK as well. The evi- dence is that the British Government and the EU are actively working toward Turkey joining the EU and Turkish citizens being able to travel throughout the EU.’

Leave campaigners claim other issues, such as the creation of an EU army and extending the reach of Brussels on economic matters, have also been postponed. A Foreign Office whistleblower said: ‘These documents conclusively show the Government is colluding with other EU members and the EU to delay all kinds of controversial things till after the referendum.’

A Government source said: ‘These are yet more ludicrous conspiracy theories from the Leave campaign, which is desperate to distract attention from experts who have warned of the real risk to jobs, opportunities and our children’s future if we take Britain backwards by quitting the EU.’

And Home Secretary Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond issued a joint statement saying the idea of opening up Britain to Turks was ‘completely untrue’.

A cache of five leaked telegrams show that ‘special’ passport holders would mean government officials, civil servants, teachers and their families.

In a telegram to the Foreign Office on May 5, Janet Douglas, the deputy head of mission in Ankara, wrote: ‘ One option would be to assess again the possibility of visa travel for Turkish special passport holders.’

They would not have rights of residency or to work.

Employment minister Miss Patel will today endorse a study from the Migration Watch think-tank suggesting that Turkish membership of the EU could add 100,000 a year to net migration.

Comment – Page 16

‘Colluding with EU members’