CAMERON IN EU PLEA TO BROWN
Panicked Prime Minister seeks help from Labour grandee as Euro campaign stalls
DAVID Cameron will today effectively hand over the campaign to keep Britain in Europe to Gordon Brown. The decision comes amid growing fears that traditional Labour voters will back Brexit next week.
In a move that echoes the final desperate days of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the Prime Minister hopes his Labour predecessor can reach out to working class voters who seem immune to his own doom-laden economic warnings.
The decision means that, despite
admitting yesterday that the referendum is ‘very close’, Mr Cameron will take a back seat in the campaign for 48 hours to allow Labour to come to the fore.
The move came as immigration shot to the top of the agenda in Scotland for the first time. A new study claimed a Brexit vote could slash the number of migrants entering Scotland from EU countries by more than 4,000 a year
Scottish Vote Leave director Tom Harris said the report cast doubt on the assertion EU migration is good for the public purse.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also discussed immigration on her debut on ITV’s Peston on Sunday. On the show, Ukip’s Suzanne Evans said: ‘There is a really strong ethical case for Brexit. It’s the case that says we are going to stop uncontrolled imigation that’s pushing down the wages of working class people.’
But Miss Davidson replied: ‘Suzanne says there is a really strong ethical case for Brexit and then goes straight to the immigration dog whistle, which is where they’ve ended up in this campaign.’
Meanwhile, a cabinet minister yesterday accused Mr Cameron of trying to ‘terrify pensioners’ into voting to stay in the EU as he ramped up warnings about the cost of Brexit.
Amid mounting panic in the Remain camp, the Prime Minister suggested he could be forced to scrap the ‘triple lock’ on pensions, which guarantees the state pension will rise each year by whichever is higher – earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent.
Mr Cameron said pensioner benefits such as free bus passes and TV licences could also be lost – and warned spending on health and defence might also be hit.
The Prime Minister seized on predictions by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that Brexit could create a deficit of £20£40billion as evidence the triple lock might become unaffordable.
Mr Cameron also suggested ring-fenced protection for the NHS and defence budgets might have to be removed. But he did not suggest that Britain’s £12billion foreign aid budget would be touched.
Critics claimed the ‘unrealistic’ threat was aimed solely at trying to scare older people, who polls suggest are more likely to back Brexit.
Employment minister Priti Patel, who backs Brexit, described Mr Cameron’s claim as ‘fear on steroids’.
Mr Brown will today set out his own case for staying in the EU. Tomorrow, Mr Cam- eron will make way for Mr Corbyn and other members of the shadow cabinet who plan to hold a joint event with trade union leaders highlighting the EU’s role in promoting workers’ rights.
The decision to draft in Mr Brown is a high-risk move – and it remains to be seen whether he has as much appeal to English voters as he had in Scotland in 2014.
A source at Vote Leave said the decision to place him at the centre of the campaign ‘shows how much trouble they are in’.
The extraordinary deal was agreed in phone calls between Mr Cameron and Mr Brown. The former Labour leader complained the party’s campaign was being crowded out by reports of Tory infighting.
Mr Cameron yesterday acknowledged he was being forced to take a back seat in order to allow Labour to get its message through. He said he was having to ‘almost take myself out of the firing line so that Labour figures and others can have their say... I mustn’t hog it as Prime Minister’.
In an interview with the Observer newspaper, Mr Cameron urged people to ‘listen to the trade unions, listen to the Greens, listen to Jeremy Corbyn’.
Mr Brown will today say Britain should be ‘leading in Europe, not leaving it’. He will pledge to introduce an ambitious EU reform package including action to protect workers’ rights, create jobs and improve living standards if Britain votes to stay in the EU. Last night it was unclear how much of the package is supported by Mr Cameron. But in the independence referendum, the Prime Minister was eventually forced to accept all of Mr Brown’s proposals for further devolution.
Mr Brown said yesterday that his agenda was ‘one that European leaders can support and I hope that the Conservative Government can support’.
But he distanced himself from the fear tactics of the In campaign to date, telling Sky News voters ‘want to know the positive reasons for staying’.
A BREXIT vote could slash the number of migrants entering Scotland from EU countries by more than 4,000 a year, according to a major new study.
The think-tank Migration Watch has calculated that leaving the EU could reduce inward migration by the equivalent population of Falkirk in little over seven years.
The fall would be the result of fewer low-skilled workers travelling to Scotland, with work permits offered to skilled foreigners.
But Migration Watch has also argued that Scotland’s population will continue to grow considerably even if Britain leaves the EU, as a result of an influx from the rest of the UK and non-European counties.
Annual net migration will be 15,900 a year – equivalent to adding a city the size of Dundee every ten years – compared to a minimum of 20,200 if there is a Remain vote on June 23.
Last night, Vote Leave campaigners seized on the report and warned that ‘immigration can’t be limited’ within the EU, ‘and that’s when we see pressures on local services, on housing supply and on our schools’.
But the Scotland Stronger in Europe campaign accused the Brexit camp of standing on a ‘bogus platform’.
The new report, released exclusively to the Scottish Daily Mail, will ignite the issue of immigration north of the Border, where until
‘Low-skilled migration is pushing down wages’
now it has not resonated to the same degree as in England.
It comes after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon put her support for immigration at the forefront of the battle to keep Britain in the EU during a live ITV referendum debate, arguing that foreigners bring ‘much-needed skills’.
But Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: ‘Poll after poll has shown that a clear majority of Scots wish to see a reduction in immigration. The good news from this study is that there is no contradiction between reducing low-skilled migration from the European Union and maintaining the steady but cautious population growth which many Scots wish to see.’
Using data for the decade, the report calculates annual average net overseas migration to Scotland of 15,200 a year, with over half coming from EU countries, on top of a minimum of 5,000 people from elsewhere in the UK.
In a Brexit situation, Migration Watch argues: ‘This would see the employment component of EU migration limited by work permits to skilled migrants, while family members and students would remain free to come.
‘The effect of cutting migration into lower-skilled employment would be to reduce net migration from the EU by about 4,300 a year – that is about half of the current 8,600 average net migration from the EU.’
The body states that reducing inward migration from 20,200 to 15,900 is still ‘above the assumption of 15,000 that the National Records of Scotland estimates as necessary for population growth of 7 per cent until 2039’.
A Scotland Stronger In Europe spokesman said: ‘The fact that Scotland’s population is projected to grow whatever the outcome of the referendum is good news, and exposes the bogus platform of the Leave campaign. Brexit would take Scotland out of the single market and that would shrink our economy, resulting in less money to invest in our public services.’
However, Tom Harris, director of the Scottish Vote Leave campaign and a former Labour MP, said: ‘This report shows most EU migrants are low-paid and low-skilled, casting doubt on the remain assertion that EU migration is good for the public purse. Uncontrolled lowskilled EU migration is pushing down wages for working families in Scotland and pushing up rents.
‘If we leave the EU we can adopt a skills-based migration system, one which we control.’
On the ITV Peston on Sunday show yesterday, Ukip’s Suzanne Evans said there is an ‘ethical’ argument for voting for Brexit. She added: ‘It’s the case that says we are going to stop uncontrolled immigration that’s pushing down working-class people’s wages.’
But Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, making her debut on the show, said: ‘Suzanne says there is a “really strong ethical case for Brexit” then goes straight to the immigration dog-whistle, which is where they’ve ended up in this campaign.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Migrants make a valuable contribution and are an important part of Scotland’s future.
It is essential that we work with our European neighbours on a shared approach to the challenges and opportunities that migration creates.’