Campaign is ‘scaremongering’

not to leave the EU. Many MPs believe the Prime Minister has already decided he will vote to remain in Europe and worry that they will face the full might of the Government machine. In other developments last night:

It emerged that David Cameron is planning to announce radical plans to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights as part of the referendum campaign, to win support for keeping Britain in the EU. One Whitehall source said the new Bill of Rights was “ready to go” but the Prime Minister wanted to hold it back for maximum impact during the referendum;

A group of Britain’s leading historians attacked Downing Street’s attempts to “scare” voters into staying in the European Union. In a letter to The Sunday

Telegraph, 14 academics and authors including Andrew Roberts argue that Nato – rather than the EU – has secured peace in Europe since the 1940s;

The Vote Leave campaign is to take advice from Norway’s successful “No to the EU” campaign on how to fight the “relentless scaremongering” of the pro-European lobby in Britain;

Senior Tories attacked the so-called “Project Fear” campaign of pro-Europeans, with criticism from former Cabinet ministers Owen Paterson and Liam Fox, and Conservative MPs Steve Baker and Bernard Jenkin;

The Labour Leave campaign prepared to launch this week, despite Jeremy Corbyn’s promise that his party would campaign to stay in the EU.

One Eurosceptic minister criticised the “In” campaign’s attempts to stoke the fears of the public in order to scare voters into staying in the EU. “The campaign is bound to follow the same path that the Scottish referendum did when fear about change was a big theme,” the minister said.

Liam Fox, a former defence secretary, rejected the arguments that EU membership protected British national security, insisting that “Nato has been the cornerstone of our security” and would remain so.

Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, said it would still be possible to collaborate with European police without being a member of the EU.

Bernard Jenkin, a senior Tory and select committee chairman, said it was “the most ludicrous scaremongering” to claim that Britain would be less safe outside the EU.

He warned Mr Cameron that he must keep the Government machine and the Tory campaign headquarters neutral in the referendum debate or risk the wrath of party members and MPs.

‘The campaign is bound to follow the path the Scottish referendum did when fear of change was a big theme’