PM ‘HAS TO GO’
THE Conservative Party was plunged further into civil war over Europe last night as two grandees warned that David Cameron may have to quit.
Former party chairmen Lord Tebbit and Liam Fox both suggested that the Prime Minister will be forced to step down if Britain votes to leave the EU.
They spoke out amid Tory anger over Mr Cameron’s increasingly strident warnings about the dangers of Brexit.
Writing in yesterday’s Daily Mail, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused No 10 of waging a campaign of ‘spin, smears and threats’ in a bid to bully voters into backing the Remain side in June’s referendum.
Mr Cameron brushed aside the warning yesterday to issue fresh claims about the perils of Brexit.
Speaking at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh, he suggested that leaving the EU could lead to swingeing tariffs for Scotland’s food exports.
Some Tories believe Mr Cameron’s time in office will be cut short even if he wins the referendum. One pro-EU Tory MP said there was ‘no chance’ of him staying in office until 2019 as planned.
No 10’s approach has enraged many Tories, who f eel the Government machine is being deployed to crush those campaigning to leave the EU.
In the past fortnight, the Government has published two ‘dodgy’ dossiers on the risks of leaving, big businesses and has been corralled into issuing statement of support for EU membership and French President Francois Hol-
‘Difficult for him to remain in office’
lande was persuaded to warn that Britain would face reprisals if it left.
Lord Tebbit said it would now be ‘extraordinarily difficult’ for Mr Cameron to continue in office if Britain votes to leave. He condemned the ‘silliness’ from Mr Cameron and fellow senior Tories over their warnings that a vote to leave the EU would represent a ‘leap in the dark’. He suggested the Prime Minister ‘probably should’ stand down if he loses the referendum.
Lord Tebbit added that ‘it would be very difficult for him to negotiate for all those things that we need to get settled with our European partners, having said it would be a disaster if we did leave.’
Dr Fox, another former party chairman, also backed Mr Duncan Smith’s call for Eurosceptics to be treated with respect – and hinted that Mr Cameron might have to go.
Asked if Mr Cameron could cling on in No 10 after a Brexit vote, he replied: ‘Yes... constitutionally.’
He added: ‘I’ve been saying for a long time to my colleagues they need to understand the binary nature of a referendum, the fact it will arouse a lot of passions. I’d said to a number of my colleagues that in a referendum friendships get tested, relationships can sour.
‘That’s always the risk when you get into a referendum, especially on something as passionate as the European Union and Britain’s future, control of its own destiny.’
London Mayor Boris Johnson stepped up his criticism of the Prime Minister’s deal with Brussels, saying Britain would be stuck ‘ hook, line and sinker’ in an unreformed EU and be left ‘like the frog in the boiling saucepan of water’ if it votes to stay in.