Cameron’s fresh fears for the UK
DAVID Cameron admitted for the first time last night that he fears a second Scottish referendum if the UK votes for Brexit.
The Prime Minister had rejected suggestions that the SNP should be able to hold another referendum, even if Britain did vote to leave.
But on ITV’s live EU referendum debate with Ukip’s Nigel Farage, Mr Cameron said: ‘Frankly, I do worry about a second Scottish referendum if we vote to leave, and you don’t strengthen your country by leading to its break-up. So I’m deeply patriotic, I think this is a case for a bigger, greater Britain inside a European Union.’
Last summer, after Alex Salmond said a second referendum was inevitable if Britain decided to leave the EU, Mr Cameron responded: ‘I do not see the need for another one.’
DAVID Cameron was last night attacked on live TV for failing to control mass immigration which has turned parts of Britain into ‘no-go areas’.
In a bruising referendum debate, the Prime Minister was also accused of being ‘humiliated’ by EU leaders who snubbed his demands for meaningful reform.
One audience member said uncontrolled immigration had left him unable to get treatment at his local GP surgery and that ‘the place where I grew up which used to be a nice place is now a no-go zone’. He added: ‘How is uncontrolled immigration working for me?’
Mr Cameron said he had made no forecast of how much his deal – which restricted access to some in-work benefits for EU workers – would cut migration by, but it would ‘make a difference’.
Mr Cameron admitted that he fears the UK could split if voters back Brexit. He said: ‘Frankly, I do worry about a second Scottish referendum if we vote to leave and you don’t strengthen your country by leading to its break-up.’
Earlier in the debate, Ukip leader Nigel Farage brandished a British passport as he declared the referendum was Britain’s ‘one and only chance’ to get a grip on mass immigration.
He said restoring the UK borders – so that only British citizens have the right to come and go freely – was the way to keep the country safe from jihadis. Mr Farage said: ‘The boss of Europol said the migrant policy – and by the way these are not refugees, they are mostly economic migrants sparked by Angela Merkel – has led to up to 5,000 jihadis coming into the EU in the last year. The former boss of Interpol said we might as well put up signs on the beaches of southern Europe saying “Terrorists welcome”.
‘We have a very real problem. The question is, how do we deal with issues like this?’
Brandishing his passport, Mr Farage added: ‘The first point is this. This should be a British passport – it says European Union on it. I think to make this country safer we need to get back British passports so we can check anyone coming in.’
The Ukip leader faced some hostile questioning from the audience, who accused him of delivering a ‘scaremongering’ warning that staying in the EU was putting women at risk of sex attacks by migrants who have different cultural attitudes.
But he denied doing anything wrong, insisting there was a campaign under way to ‘demonise’ the Leave campaign and him personally.
He said the current referendum was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get a grip on immigration, telling the audience: ‘Here is our chance, maybe our one and only chance as a nation to get a grip on this.’ Mr Farage was also asked about a threat from the president of the European Commission that the UK would face ‘consequences’ in the event of Brexit.
He said even the ‘worst case scenario’ – with the French and Germans imposing tariffs on the UK – the barriers would be ‘significantly lower’ than the amount paid into Brussels’ coffers.
He added: ‘No deal is better than the rotten deal we have at the moment. I don’t want to be threatened. We’re British, we’re better than that. We’re not going to be bullied.
‘I want us to get back our independence and to say we’ll be good Europeans – we’ll trade with Europe, co-operate with Europe, but govern ourselves. I think if we do that, the rest of Europe will do that too.’
Last night, George Osborne seized on figures from the Bank of England showing that £65 billion either left the UK or was converted into foreign currencies in March and April.
The Chancellor said it indicated unease about the prospect of Brexit and warned the UK will be ‘permanently poorer’ if we leave.