Bitter Tory in-fighting as Boris Johnson says David Cameron’s Remain campaign is ‘panicked’ by Brexit poll lead
Polls suggest the EU referendum race is going to go down to the wire
BORIS Johnson yesterday accused David Cameron of panic as two polls gave the fight to leave the EU a commanding six-point lead.
The PM and his Remain campaign are lashing out with a tirade of personal abuse at him because they are now terrified of defeat, the former London Mayor told The Sun.
With time running out ahead of the June 23 referendum, two polls for — an ICM phone vote and an internet survey — each put Leave on 53 per cent and Remain on 47.
The figures shook the Remain campaign and mean Brexit is continuing its late surge, taking the race down to the wire.
In an interview with The Sun while on a visit to High Wycombe, Bucks, Boris said: “They are panicked.
What we have seen in the last few days in particular is more and more panic by the In camp.
“I think they are less and less confident about the outcome and so they are really trying to scare people, which is totally wrong.”
Boris has been targeted hard by fellow senior Tories in the past week.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said he is “not the man you want driving you home at the end of an evening” and ex-PM Sir John Major called him a “very entertaining court jester”.
Refusing to engage in tit-for-tat name calling, Boris said: “It suits people to try to turn it into a conversation about personalities, when what we need to do is focus on the issues.
“The Remain side is doing what we call jibbing. They are panicked about people suddenly looking up, lifting their eyes to the horizon and feeling a sense of confidence and excitement about what Britain can do.”
The latest two polls mean a Brexit vote has taken the lead for the first time in Strathclyde University Professor John Curtice’s poll of polls.
Last night a YouGov survey for The Times put Brexit seven points ahead on 46 to Remain’s 39 per cent, but 15 per cent are still undecided.
Bookies Ladbrokes narrowed the odds of Brexit to just 13-8, though Remain is still the favourite at 2-1 on.
But the Pound fell to an eight-week low against the dollar as City traders continued to worry.
Sterling also hit a one-month low against the euro.
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The Remain campaign was boosted when Andrew Tyrie, one of the Tories’ most senior backbenchers, declared his support.
The respected head of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, who had been on the fence, lashed out at Vote Leave’s “misleading” claim that walking away would save £350million a week.
Mr Tyrie said: “The Leavers have the simplest points. But the Remainers have the better of the arguments.”
His decision prompted more furious in-fighting, as fellow Tory MP Nadine Dorries accused Mr Tyrie of selling out for a job in government of “a sniff of the Chancellor’s dirty socks”.
Keeping up his Project Fear warnings, George Osborne warned a Brexit could clobber disability benefits.
A day after warning defence spending could fall, the Chancellor said: “How can a poorer country afford exactly the same on the health service, support for the vulnerable like disabled people?”
Later he astonishingly claimed quitting the EU would help the richest while hurting the hardest-up.
He told Sky News: “People on low incomes, people on insecure incomes, they are the people who suffer when the economy fails and goes into recession.”
Ex-Defence Secretary Liam Fox backed up Boris, agreeing it was unacceptable for Tories to question each other’s motives.
He said: “That has happened and I think it’s very unfortunate, because these scars last well beyond the referendum date itself.”
Dr Fox also warned the Remain campaign was out to pull the wool over voters’ eyes, like he insisted it did in the last EU referendum 41 years ago.
Sharing a stage with Mr Johnson, he said: “We were conned in 1975 and we are being conned today.
“The essential untruth of the Remain campaign is there is no reformed EU out there to be a member of.
“We are not leaving the EU, we are rejoining the rest of the world.”
Brexit-backing Michael Gove said he does not care if he is sacked because of his stand against the PM.
The Justice Secretary said: “I don’t mind if my Cabinet career is over. The most important thing is to make a principled case for Britain leaving the EU.”
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