Brexit: Now it’s personal
Boris brands Cameron war warnings completely bogus
The Tory war over the EU escalated last night with Boris Johnson accusing David Cameron of corroding public trust in politics by failing to curb mass immigration.
On the most frenzied day of the campaign so far, the rival camps clashed over a warning from the Prime Minister that Brexit could make war in europe more likely.
Mr Johnson said this was ‘wholly bogus’ – and claimed that far from keeping the peace, the EU had stoked tensions in Ukraine.
The Tory leadership contender also hammered Mr Cameron for his failure to get a grip on immigration – which he said was impossible while Britain was an EU member.
he said: ‘It is deeply corrosive of popular trust in democracy that every year UK politicians tell the public that they can cut immigration to the tens of thousands – and then find that they miss their targets by hundreds of thousands.’
Mr Johnson also said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine proves ‘the EU’s pretensions to a defence policy’ has caused ‘real trouble’. however supporters of the Remain campaign hit back at his comments – branding him a ‘Putin apologist’.
The row between the two sides of the campaign exploded in the wake of comments by Mr Cameron that leaving the EU would make war and genocide in europe more likely.
In a speech yesterday morning, the Prime Minister said that while europe has largely been at peace since 1945 it was barely two decades since the Bosnian war, and more recently Russia has been at war with Georgia and Ukraine.
‘Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt?’ he asked. ‘Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.’
however his analysis was attacked as ‘historically illiterate’ and by a string of pro-Brexit MPs – who insisted it was Nato, not the EU, that had kept the peace.
They also questioned why the he had promised a referendum in the first place if he feared it could trigger war on the continent.
Tory MP James Cleverly said: ‘If leaving the EU could lead to war, why were we considering doing it if we couldn’t get minor changes to migrant benefits?’
ex- defence secretary Liam Fox added that Mr Cameron might threaten an ‘asteroid impact’ next.
Three hours after Mr Cameron’s speech, Mr Johnson hit back on behalf of the Leave campaign.
The MP, who will tomorrow launch a nationwide bus tour, cited a speech given by Mr Cameron at Bloomberg in 2013 in which he said the EU needed ‘fundamental, farreaching change’.
he highlighted that Mr Cameron said he was willing to campaign to leave if he failed to achieve fundamental reform and treaty change, adding: ‘And that is frankly what the Government should now be doing ... There has been not a single change to EU competences, not a single change to the treaty, nothing on agriculture, nothing on the role of the court, nothing of any substance on borders – nothing remotely resembling the agenda for change that was promised in the 2013 Bloomberg speech.’
Deriding the ‘insulting, irrelevant and positively cretinous’ assertion that Brexit supporters were ‘smallminded xenophobes’, Mr Johnson said: ‘The truth is it is Brexit that is now the great project of european liberalism, and I am afraid that it is the european Union ... that now represents the ancient regime.’
he added that politicians needed to ‘stop saying one thing in Brussels’ and another to voters.
There was also controversy last night over Mr Cameron’s speech being declared a Government event. Britain Stronger In europe helped to publicise the talk, but by stating it was arranged by the Cabinet Office it does not count towards official referendum spending limits. Leave campaigners said this amounted to an unfair advantage.
Despite Mr Cameron’s doom- laden warnings, Downing Street last night revealed that ministers are not making contingency plans to ‘prevent war’ if voters back Brexit. A No 10 spokesman said: ‘We are not doing any contingency planning because we have a policy position that we should remain within the EU.’
They also slapped down Mr Johnson’s comments on Ukraine, saying: ‘The PM could not be clearer that the illegal annexation of Crimea was brought about by Russia alone, and the EU sanctions are having a positive effect.’ Former foreign secretary Jack Straw called Mr Johnson a ‘ Putin apologist’ who has ‘plumbed new depths’. ÷ Mr Cameron begged London’s new mayor to help with the EU campaign – just days after branding him an extremist sympathiser.
Sadiq Khan revealed the Prime Minister had called to congratulate him on his victory, and asked for help in ensuring PRO-EU Labour supporters vote next month.
No 10 confirmed the two men had ‘touched on the EU’ during a phone call. A spokesman declined to say whether Mr Cameron stood by previous claims that Muslim Mr Khan was a threat to London.
Andrew Roberts and Comment – Page 16
‘Irrelevant and cretinous’