The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
EU gives ‘security, safety and certainty’ says PM
Business: Prime Minister tours FTSE 100 companies backing remaining in the EU
David Cameron said he hoped for a “reasonable, civilised” battle with eurosceptics as he renewed hostilities with Boris Johnson over the UK’s future in the European Union.
The Prime Minister urged the public to choose “security, safety and certainty” by voting to remain in the EU in June’s referendum – as he visited one of dozens of top businesses whose bosses backed his case in a letter.
Mr Cameron said his close friend – who dramatically declared his support for the “leave” camp at the weekend – had a “very strong future in British politics” but repeatedly stressed his judgment was “wrong” on that count and he was “disappointed” by his stance.
“I have huge respect for Boris as a politician. But on this issue I think he has got it wrong,” he told staff members at O2 in Slough.
“We are going to have, I hope, a very reasonable, civilised argument between us and between other parties and you are going to find people with some fairly strange bedfellows. This is one where Jeremy Corbyn and I agree.”
In the letter to the Times, chairmen or chief executives of 36 FTSE 100 companies said a Brexit would “deter investment and threaten jobs” – but the total number falls short of the 80 or 50 that it had previously been suggested would sign.
“Obviously we have got to listen to other voices as well,” Mr Cameron said.
“But when we listen to businesses we are not just listening to what some big business chief might say, we are actually listening to the effect on jobs, to the effect on families’ finances, to the effect on prosperity for our country and for all our people.”