David Cameron pleads with voters to choose Remain so UK can reshape EU
PM tells undecided voters we should 'lead the EU not leave'
DAVID Cameron today calls on wavering voters to give him a powerful mandate to reshape the EU for the better by voting to stay in it on Thursday.
A referendum victory would put Britain in a “very enhanced position” to “drive forward changes”, the PM insisted.
And top of his list will be a tougher clamp down on freedom of movement, Mr Cameron said, declaring: “We want as much as we can achieve with that.”
The PM issued the pledge during an interview with The Sun yesterday – one of his last before the landmark poll in just 48 hours time.
Quizzed on whether he agreed with Theresa May’s call for “further reform” to tighten immigration rules, he vowed to use the UK’s rotating six-month presidency of the EU next year to push through his agenda.
Mr Cameron said: “If we stay in, that is not the end of reform.
“Britain will be in a very enhanced position.
“There is no doubt that a British Prime Minister with a mandate from the election, a re-negotiation, and a referendum would have the ability in Europe to drive forward changes that are needed.”
PM blasts Gove for ‘Donald Trump’ style tactics in debate
DAVID Cameron has lashed out at Michael Gove’s attack on experts to accuse him of “Donald Trump-style” politics.
Ramping his assault on Leave campaign bosses, the PM also accused them of “selling a fantasy” to voters and vowed to “call that out”.
The PM’s broadside is his most stinging yet on his fellow senior Tories and will only deepen the party’s bitter civil war.
Pro-Brexit Justice Secretary Mr Gove last month dismissed warnings from “establishment” economists such as the Bank of England against leaving the EU by saying:
“People in this country have had enough of experts”.
Hitting back in his interview with the Sun, Mr Cameron said: “The idea we should not listen to experts I think is very worrying for our future politics.
“If we are going into a ‘let’s not listen to anyone who knows what they are talking about’, it is just sort of Donald Trump-style, it is all going to be great.
“I worry.”
The PM also insisted it would be a “tragedy” for Britain to walk away from Brussels because “people have been told things which are simply not true”.
He highlighted what he dubbed “three untruths” on most of Vote leave’s leaflets – narrowly stopping short of accusing Mr Gove and Boris Johnson of telling outright lies.
And he accused the Leave campaign of having “morphed into the UKIP campaign”.
Mr Cameron said: “All they are talking about is unless you leave, Turkey is going to join. Not true.
“They are being told unless you leave £350m a week is going to go to Brussels. Not true.
“They are being told we are going to be part of a European army. Not true.
“And they are endlessly talking about migration, often in a way that is designed to frighten, scare and divide people. And that is all that they are left with.”
On immigration, modest victories in Brussels to keep out criminals, sham marriage holders and benefits scroungers is far from the end of his ambitions, Mr Cameron insisted, but part of “an on-going process”.
He added: “We have got to deliver all the things that we said, plus I hope more.
“We are re-opening the free movement directive. We want as much as we can achieve with that – the more you can do the better.
“We have got the UK presidency coming up, we should be leading this organisation not leaving it.”
But he warned: “All of these things are on the agenda if we stay, and they are all gone forever if we leave.”
The fresh reform pledges are the first insight the Premier has offered into his post-referendum victory plan to pacify millions of Brits who will vote for Brexit.
Huge voter survey reveals EU referendum is on a knife edge as THIRD of Brits still undecided
A THIRD of all Brits are still not totally convinced how to vote in the knife-edge EU referendum with just 48 hours to go, a massive survey has found.
The online voter advice test by tech firm Crowdpac has also revealed the race is still almost tied, with 50% currently backing Leave and 49% for Remain.
A huge total of 567,998 people underwent the sophisticated test, devised by former No10 strategy chief Steve Hilton.
Once their responses were weighted for national balance, a total of 68% were found to have a firm view on how to vote.
But even at this late stage, 31% said they found arguments on both sides persuasive – meaning there could still be all to play for.
The huge number of respondents also allowed Crowdpac to produce detailed regional breakdowns of voting intentions on Thursday.
Scotland and London are the country’s two areas that will overwhelmingly vote to stay in, and the North, the East and the Midlands will definitely vote to get out.
But the South East, the South West and Wales are split almost down the middle.
In a boost to the Leave campaign, the Crowdpac survey also found Brexit has a slight lead overall on the economic arguments – which Remain bosses consider their strongest point.
Instead, the In campaign has a lead on questions of society and identity.
Crowdpac CEO Steve Hilton said: “This is the biggest ever survey of British voters and it shows it’s all to play for as the referendum campaigns move into the crucial final phase.
“The Crowdpac survey is not like normal polls — the result comes after voters have completed a questionnaire with all the main arguments presented objectively.”
He also highlighted fighting terrorism, slashing red tape and signing more trade deals with the rest of the world as his other EU reform priorities.
The fresh wave of reforms come on top of a series of successes in recent years with the EU that have got “almost no attention”, the PM insisted.
They include re-writing EU law to enforce the removal of 6,000 EU citizens from the UK for free movement abuses, such sleeping rough and not working.
But the promise of more reform also risks backfiring.
Leave campaigners leapt on the PM’s vow last night to insist it highlights his failure to win meaningful concessions to curtail free movement in his renegotiation for a new deal just four months ago.
Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott branded the PM’s promisies “an admission of failure”, adding: “He tried to get reform but failed spectacularly.
“No one will believe his claim now that an IN vote would somehow unlock more reforms later down the track.
If we vote to stay in the EU politicians will laugh in our face if we ask for more.”
Mr Cameron will spend the final 48 hours of the referendum fight ramping up the risks of leaving the EU in a bid to sway up to five million still undecided voters away from backing Brexit.
Speaking on a train to a campaign visit in Birmingham yesterday, he also tried to highlight the security risks of Brexit.
Leaving the EU would “divide the West and divide democracies” against threats such as ISIS or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Mr Cameron claimed.
PM claims Brexit will slap extra £200 on motorists’ fuel bills
BREXIT could slap an extra £200 a year on drivers’ fuel pump bills, David Cameron last night claimed.
The PM told The Sun that leaving the EU will spark a sharp drop in the value of the Pound by as much as 20 per cent.
That will ramp the cost to garage owners of importing petrol and diesel, which they will pass on to consumers, and Sun readers will suffer the most.
Mr Cameron claimed: “It could put £200 on a typical fuel bill for the year for someone driving a Ford Focus.
“If the pound goes down, the cost of petrol goes up.”
In a bid to flag up the risks of Brexit to ordinary people’s pockets, the PM added: “My worry is that the people who will be hit the hardest by leaving the EU are hardworking Sun readers, who want to support their families.
“That is just one aspect of where people who not necessarily on high wages are the most at risk of an exit where we see the economy shrink, opportunities go down and we lose jobs.”
Last month, Leave campaign boss Boris Johnson insisted Brexit would have the opposite effect on fuel prices by liberating.
Breaking free from Brussels would the end EU’s “stranglehold” on our pumps by letting the British government slash VAT on fuel below the current 15 per cent floor set by Brussels.
But the PM hit back at the ex-Tory London Mayor’s promise to brand it “fantasy” economics”.
And he named ex-MI6 chief Sir John Sawyers and former MI5 boss Lord Evans as “the two people who have influenced me on this more than anybody else”, adding: “They are in no doubt that the cooperation we have, the work we do together is incredibly important”.
Despite the bitter Tory civil war that he and George Osborne have ignited with “Project Fear” scare claims, the PM insisted he regrets nothing about his explosive campaign.
Instead, he vowed to press on with his dire warnings right up until Thursday.
Mr Cameron said: “I have said the things that I want to say, about the strength of our economy, the strength of our country, the safety that we get in numbers at a time of difficulty.
“And I am just going to go on saying them, and that is that.”
Challenged on why he had failed to reassure voters so far on the tinderbox issue of immigration, Mr Cameron admitted it was “a very difficult challenge in a modern economy and in a globalised world”.
There were no simple solutions to halt the massive influx of new arrivals that has reduced his target to tatters, the PM also claimed, saying that “simple can sometimes be simplistic”.
The PM’s plea to voters came as one of the EU’s two chiefs yesterday admitted the UK’s referendum was “a warning signal” and Europe must now change.
PM’s former ‘guru’ says he knew election pledge to cut immigration was impossible YEARS ago
DAVID Cameron knew his target to cut immigration to “tens of thousands” was impossible for four years but continued to make the pledge, one of his closest former aides claimed last night.
Steve Hilton – who attended top-level meetings with the Prime Minister – said civil servants directly warned the PM he was on mission impossible because EU rules insist on the free movement of people.
But despite being told in 2012 it was a no-go, he said Mr Cameron repeated the promise – even including it in his general election manifesto last year.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Hilton said: “We were told, directly and explicitly, that it was impossible for the Government to meet its immigration target as long as we remained members of the EU, which of course insists on the free movement of people within it.”
Just weeks ago the PM insisted he stuck by his “ambition” of bringing net migration into the UK – which last month hit 333,000.
Mr Hilton added: “You don’t need to sit in a ‘stock take’ meeting at No 10 Downing Street to see the obvious truth: our immigration system is completely broken, and as long as we’re in the EU, our elected governments are powerless to fix it.
“In the 2015 Conservative manifesto, the Prime Minister reaffirmed his commitment to the immigration target he had been told was undeliverable.
“When I saw that, I assumed this was either because he was certain he could negotiate a solution within the EU, or was assuming we would leave.
“For the Government to continue to make the promise today, after no negotiated solution was achieved and while campaigning to stay, is, I think, what (Michael) Gove and (Boris) Johnson meant when they described this as corrosive of trust in politics.”
EU Council President Donald Tusk said: “Whatever the UK vote is, we must take long hard look on the future of the Union.
“It would be foolish to ignore such a warning signal.
“There are more signals of dissatisfaction with the Union from all over Europe, not just the UK.”
Issuing his own plea to British voters, former Polish PM Mr Tusk added: “I appeal to the British citizens: stay with us, we need you.
“Together we will cope with future challenges, apart it will be more difficult.”
Mr Tusk also said his feelings are shared by “almost all Europeans and European Leaders”.
Backing him up, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker added his own plea for a Remain vote, saying the union would have “a missing element” without Britain’s pragmatism and no-nonsense approach.
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