BREXIT POLL BOOST AS MIGRATION FEARS GROW

Out camp takes 7-point lead amid warnings of UK population surge

THE Remain campaign was in meltdown last night over mass migration.

Three opinion polls put Brexit up to seven points ahead following a fortnight in which immigration became the dominant issue in the referendum. A report yesterday warned the UK population will pass 76million by 2035 – most of the arrivals coming from the EU.

The study follows official statistics revealing that net migration rose to a near record 333,000 last year. Yesterday senior Labour figures were called in to shore up Remain support in the party’s northern heartlands. But Gordon Brown continued to insist that EU migration was not ‘uncontrolled’. Within hours he was flatly contradicted by his former

sidekick Ed Balls who said Britain needed to ‘restore proper borders’. The former shadow chancellor also said the deal secured by David Cameron on limiting migrant benefits did not go far enough.

There is growing evidence that fears over immigration are building support for Leave. Experts said Brexit now had an overall lead in a ‘poll of polls’.

A YouGov poll for the Times put Remain on 39 and Leave on 46, with 11 per cent still unsure. Phone and internet polls for the Guardian, conducted by ICM, also show support for leaving the EU is growing.

Leave now enjoys a 53-47 advantage once don’t knows are excluded, according to research conducted over the weekend. A Daily Telegraph poll puts the Leave lead at 1 point. With only nine days until the historic vote on continued EU membership:

European Council president Donald Tusk claimed Brexit could trigger the end of ‘Western political civilisation’;

Figures showed the EU has granted citizenship to five million migrants since 009 – giving them free access to the UK; The Sun newspaper urged its readers to vote Out to escape ‘dictatorial’ Brussels;

Academics said that the Treasury had been turned into a pro- Brussels propaganda machine;

Remain campaigners claimed disability benefits and NHS funding would be slashed after a Leave vote;

Martin McGuinness, a former member of the IRA army council, pledged to campaign for In.

Mr Cameron took a back seat in the campaign yesterday to allow Mr Brown to lead the Labour fightback. The decision followed mounting alarm that large numbers of traditional Labour voters, particularly in the North of England, are planning to vote Leave, largely because of concerns about immigration.

But the move quickly backfired as the former PM, who once labelled a voter with concerns about immigration a bigot, came under pressure over Labour’s past record. Mr Brown brushed aside the public’s concerns, saying: ‘In Britain we have managed migration – it is not uncontrolled.’

He said voters were much more concerned about the threat of illegal immigration than about mass migration from the EU. And he accused the Leave camp of having a ‘hatred’ of the EU rather than being concerned with issues of sovereignty, pointing out they had not complained about US military bases on UK soil.

His comments were criticised by pro-Brexit MPs – including senior figures in his own party – who accused him of complacency. Last night, Mr Balls added to the chaos with an article for the Daily Mirror.

The Remain campaigner wrote: ‘Europe still doesn’t work well enough for Britain. There’s still too much waste and bureaucracy from Brussels and, while a limit has been secured on the benefits paid to migrant workers, I don’t think that can be the end of the story. We need to press Europe to restore proper borders.’

Mr Cameron will keep a low profile again today to allow Jeremy Corbyn to make the pro-Brussels case. Speaking on a joint platform with militant Unite union boss Len McCluskey, the Labour leader will say staying in the EU could ‘strengthen workers’ rights’.

Leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson said the PM’s decision to make way for Mr Brown smacked of panic.

He added: ‘The Remain campaign are getting slightly rattled now; if you have a relaunch with Gordon Brown that’s got to be some measure of desperation.’

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said the polls were encouraging.

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