Major savages ‘boorish Brexit’
Ex-PM’s fury over ‘shameless’ falsehoods as he claims... Out vote will blow £40bn black hole in UK f inances
SIR John Major has launched a powerful attack on ‘shameless and distorted’ attempts by Brexit leaders to persuade voters that Britain should leave the EU.
And he said cutting ties with Brussels would ‘blow a £40billion hole’ in the UK’s economy.
The former Prime Minister said the way the Leave campaigners had behaved was ‘a fraud on the British people’ and accused its leaders of ‘boorish and sneering’ attacks on David Cameron. They had ‘peddled falsehoods’ about the cost of Britain’s membership of the EU and fanned immigration fears with ‘the worst type of dog-whistle politics’, he said.
The ferocity of the former Tory leader’s attack in an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday will send shockwaves through his party.
Normally renowned for his restraint, he spoke out after becoming enraged by tactics used by Vote Leave, which is spearheaded by former London Mayor Boris Johnson.
His article follows fury in Downing Street at personal attacks on Mr Cameron by Vote Leave in which Mr Johnson has called the Prime Minister’s pro-EU comments ‘demented’. Last week, he effectively accused Mr Cameron of lying for failing to deliver on his promise to curb immigration.
The June 23 referendum has triggered one of the most bitter splits in the Conservative Party. Sir John, whose Government in the 1990s was scarred by attacks by Eurosceptic Tory MPs, said Vote Leave was guilty of ‘cavalier exaggeration of likely EU immigration’.
He argued: ‘We are not, as they [Vote Leave] warn, facing the risk of 88 million migrants from Turkey and the Western Balkans: this fear-mongering is the worst sort of “dog-whistle” politics. Boris Johnson himself said [Turkish entry to the EU] is not remotely on the cards. Yet Vote Leave persist in raising more scare stories.’
Sir John added: ‘“Let’s keep people out” is an easy slogan with a murky history.’
He said Vote Leave had resorted to ‘irresponsible and provocative oratory’ on immigration and ‘phantom fears with puffed-up false statistics and downright untruths’.
He was equally scathing about the hotly disputed claim emblazoned on Mr Johnson’s Vote Leave red battle bus that Britain pays £350million a week to the EU, because it failed to take into account the rebate and subsidies the UK gets for sectors such as agriculture and science.
‘We do not pay £350million a week to the EU,’ said Sir John, adding that if Vote Leave persuaded the UK to quit the EU single market it would ‘blow a £40billion black hole in Britain’s budget’.
‘Phantom fears, false figures and plain untruths’
more scare stories. Even if – at some far distant date – Turkey did join, are we really to believe that every one of her citizens would up sticks and head for the United Kingdom? Of course not. Vote Leave’s irresponsible and provocative oratory is intended purely to plant an entirely false image in people’s minds. It is fear over fact. Responsible politicians should know better.
THE entry of any country to the EU is in our hands. We can say No. We – the British – have an absolute veto on the entry of any country to the EU if we wish to use it. Vote Leave knows this, so what were they thinking of last weekend when they stated the opposite? As one migrant scare story falls apart, Vote Leave raises another. And, to add emotion to their mischief, they warn that European migrants will have a negative impact on the NHS. This is spectacular misdirection, for without the skills of European migrants, the NHS would be heavily understaffed.
There are 54,000 EU citizens working in our Health Service as doctors, nurses and ancillaries, and a further 80,000 caring for the sick in Social Welfare. How many of us have been cared for in hospital by European doctors and nurses?
Who keeps our public transport running? Who keeps our hotel industry staffed? Who greets us each morning across the counter in coffee shops up and down the country? Collectively, these and other workers contribute far more in taxes than they take in benefit or care costs. Of course, there is a temporary problem of numbers of migrants. I totally accept this. But please note the word ‘temporary’.
The growth of the eurozone economy – now clearly under way – will create more jobs across Europe which, in turn, should cut demand to come to the UK. But, in any event, a short-term migrancy flow from Europe should not be the issue that drives the UK out of an economic union that benefits our country immensely, and will continue to do so in the much longer term.
‘Let’s keep people out’ is an easy slogan with a murky history – but Vote Leave needs to explain who their policy would affect, and how they will implement it.
Specifically, I would welcome their responses to the following points:
Have they considered how their plans to cut EU migrancy would affect the immigration status of EU citizens now working in the UK – more than 110,000 of them in the NHS and social care system?
What would be the effect of their policy on our caring services, transport, commerce and industry?
How would their policy on leaving the EU affect British citizens living or working in Europe?
When Vote Leave turns its attention to the Single Market, their disregard for truth turns into utter confusion. Not only have they failed to dent the economic case for remaining in the EU, they can’t even agree on their own case if we were to leave. Their heads are all over the place on this issue, and yet it is central to the quality of life for every individual and family in the UK.
Some in Vote Leave say the UK should leave the Single Market, lose all preferential access to it, and rely on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules in future trade with Europe. It is hard to imagine any single event that would do more harm to our country’s wellbeing.
Outside the EU, we would have to renegotiate more than 50 free trade agreements, which could take many years to complete and, as the Director-General of the WTO has said, ‘leaving the EU would cost the UK many billions in trade tariffs’. The damage to our economic interests would be self-inflicted – and severe. Other Brexiteers disagree about leaving the Single Market. They say they would negotiate a different arrangement with the EU. Some want a Swiss arrangement; others a Norwegian arrangement; yet others an Albanian arrangement.
In the first two circumstances we would have to continue to pay into the EU budget and accept free movement of people. Not only that, but such a proposal would mean we would have to accept European rules and regulations, while having no say whatsoever in making them. In the third, we would have no access to the Single Market, which would do profound and long-lasting damage to our economy.
It’s an absolute mess. No wonder the British people are left baffled, bewildered and confused. They need to know what all this would mean for their future, but Vote Leave are in such a muddle themselves that none of them seems willing or able to explain it to others.
Moreover, for the UK to have to obey rules and regulations without any influence over them would be an absurd and undignified position for a nation like Britain. It would be an absolute negation of sovereignty on trade rules. Instead of sharing sovereignty (as we do now), we would be surrendering it. Far from ‘taking back control’ as the Brexiteers trumpet they wish to do, we would be throwing it away.
VOTE Leave has consistently failed to tell us how they see the UK outside Europe. They have glib slogans, but no solid detail. They know what they are against, but have no agreed position on what they are for. Some of the leaders of Vote Leave are my fellow Conservatives. Others are experienced parliamentarians. I don’t doubt their patriotism, nor their commitment to their cause. But I am dismayed by the way in which they have conducted this campaign, which I believe to have been a fraud on the British people.
They have, knowingly, told untruths about the cost of Europe. They have promised negotiating gains that cannot – and will not – be delivered. They have hailed alleged advantages of leaving Europe, while ignoring even the most obvious obstacles and drawbacks. They have raised phantom fears that cannot be justified, puffing up their case with false statistics, unlikely scenarios and downright untruths. To mislead the British nation in this fashion – when its very future is at stake – is unforgivable.
We British are an open-hearted, open-minded, generous-spirited, compassionate people. The majority of us are decent and hard-working, wishing to do the right thing for our families, friends and communities. We have been an outward-looking, internationalist nation for centuries: Great Britons, not Little Englanders. We need to embrace Europe and the wider world, not exclude ourselves from it.
There will not be another referendum on Europe. This is it. The decision we take on June 23 will shape our country, our people and our livelihoods for generations to come. I have no doubt that the long-term positives of our country’s membership of the EU far outweigh the short-term frustrations of it.
That is why each and every vote is crucial, for our children and grandchildren will not easily forgive us if we get it wrong.
The figures they use – on every piece of literature and every lick of paint on their battle bus – are wholly false