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EU referendum live: Cameron says Brexit vote would be economic 'bomb'
EU referendum live: Cameron says Brexit vote would be economic 'bomb'
(35 minutes later)
11.13am BST
11:13
This is from the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon.
The Brexit campaign is getting serious: not only is Boris Johnson wearing a tie, he's actually knotted it pic.twitter.com/MpY39EDM9d
11.11am BST
11:11
Vote Leave event
The Vote Leave event is just starting. It’s in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the speakers are Boris Johnson, Gisela Stuart, Michael Gove and John Longworth.
11.09am BST
11:09
Here is the 38-page Britain Stronger in Europe dossier (pdf) that David Cameron was talking about earlier. It supposedly describes “four con tricks” Vote Leave are perpetrating.
11.03am BST
11:03
Vote Leave accuses Cameron of campaigning alongside 'losers'
Here are some of the tweets Vote Leave have been posting in response to the Cameron/Harman/Farron/Bennett event.
We passed equal pay, sex discrimination & holiday pay act without any help from the EU. @HarrietHarman is talking Britain down #Voteleave
.@natalieben has repeatedly condemned the EU for lack of democracy and #TTIP #VoteLeave
.@natalieben do you admit that #TTIP poses a threat to the #NHS? Will you support EU when this goes through? pic.twitter.com/ZQQcezpkK6
The more losers the BSE campaign wheel out alongside Cameron the more they look like they are on a sinking ship
10.53am BST
10:53
The event is over. The Reuters feed shows Cameron hurrying off. He is not hanging around to gossip with Harman, Farron or Bennett.
It would have looked a bit more genuinely cross-party if Cameron had let Harman, Farron and Bennett answer some of the questions in the Q&A.
Still, it was a probably effective campaign event. People generally like seeing politicians from different parties cooperating. It makes them look public-spirited.
10.43am BST
10:43
Cameron winds up the event.
But Natalie Bennett comes forward. She says all the questions were about party splits. She urges the media to focus on the issues, and not on what is happening to the Tory party or the Labour party.
10.42am BST
10:42
Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] Isn’t Boris Johnson right to say what we pay to the EU will go up? The Labour leader isn’t here? Doesn’t that mean Labour is not committed to Remain?
Cameron says Labour is officially committed to remaining in the EU. He would be happy to share a platform with Jeremy Corbyn, he says.
He says it has been shown “beyond any doubt” that the figure on the Vote Leave bus is misleading. He says even Nigel Farage says it is misleading.
Cameron says he negotiated a reduction in the EU budget for the rest of this decade.
He says the rebate can only be changed by unanimity - ie, if the British prime minister agrees.
He says Vote Leave are “reckless with statistics and wrong on the figures”.
10.38am BST
10.38am BST
10:38
10:38
Q: [From Andy Bell, 5 News] Isn’t the case for Remain being lost in the Tory civil war? And what will you do to end it?
Q: [From Andy Bell, 5 News] Isn’t the case for Remain being lost in the Tory civil war? And what will you do to end it?
Cameron says he is going to focus on the facts. Today we have seen a broad alliance. People who would not normally be seen together, “be seen dead together on a platform”, all making the case for Remain.
Cameron says he is going to focus on the facts. Today we have seen a broad alliance. People who would not normally be seen together, “be seen dead together on a platform”, all making the case for Remain.
The Leave campaign are being reckless.
The Leave campaign are being reckless.
They are going around the country telling people things that simply are not true, he says.
They are going around the country telling people things that simply are not true, he says.
10.36am BST
10.36am BST
10:36
10:36
Cameron's Q&A
Cameron's Q&A
The speeches are over.
The speeches are over.
Cameron says they will take some questions.
Cameron says they will take some questions.
Q: [From Alex Forsyth, BBC] Isn’t the fact you have to line up with Labour and the Lib Dems and the Greens a sign of the disunity in your party?
Q: [From Alex Forsyth, BBC] Isn’t the fact you have to line up with Labour and the Lib Dems and the Greens a sign of the disunity in your party?
Cameron says there is an “extraordinarily broad alliance” in favour of Remain. The four speakers have put a broad range of arguments, he says. People want to know the arguments and the facts.
Cameron says there is an “extraordinarily broad alliance” in favour of Remain. The four speakers have put a broad range of arguments, he says. People want to know the arguments and the facts.
10.32am BST
10.32am BST
10:32
10:32
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, is speaking now.
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, is speaking now.
She says she wants to focus today on the environmental case for staying in the EU.
She says she wants to focus today on the environmental case for staying in the EU.
The environment doesn’t respect national borders. Birds migrate. Fish cross seas. Rivers merge. Oceans meet. Air pollution drifts. Natural resources are shared. Acid rain pours on everyone – not just the country responsible for the pollution. What one country does to its own environment can profoundly affect its neighbours – and those far beyond it. Some people think of environmental threats as a concern only for the few – but they matter to everyone. Take air pollution as just one example - it kills thousands every year and particularly affects the poorest, the oldest and the least healthy – It is an issue of inequality as much as it is of environmental protection.
The environment doesn’t respect national borders. Birds migrate. Fish cross seas. Rivers merge. Oceans meet. Air pollution drifts. Natural resources are shared. Acid rain pours on everyone – not just the country responsible for the pollution. What one country does to its own environment can profoundly affect its neighbours – and those far beyond it. Some people think of environmental threats as a concern only for the few – but they matter to everyone. Take air pollution as just one example - it kills thousands every year and particularly affects the poorest, the oldest and the least healthy – It is an issue of inequality as much as it is of environmental protection.
And we know that action on the biggest threats to our environment can’t just be conducted from our own island – it has to be done internationally. And it is. Over the years, European Union membership has helped transform the UK’s natural environment.
And we know that action on the biggest threats to our environment can’t just be conducted from our own island – it has to be done internationally. And it is. Over the years, European Union membership has helped transform the UK’s natural environment.
Updated
Updated
at 10.33am BST
at 10.33am BST
10.30am BST
10:30
Harman challenges Vote Leave to say what workers' rights they would cut
Harriet Harman is speaking now.
She says she wants people to know where Labour stands.
It’s not surprising that Labour supporters have struggled to catch a glimpse of why Labour backs the EU as the media has been dominated by the row in the Tory party.
She says the EU protects workers’ rights.
Because we’re in the EU, people have better rights at work. The EU guarantees those rights. It’s the EU that made our governments pass laws to ensure employers give paid holiday, paid maternity leave, rights for part-timers. So long as we’re in the EU no Tory government can try and take those rights away.
And she says the Remain campaign is right to warn people about the threat to workers’ rights.
I’m not going to be put off by people calling it “Project Fear”. I am fearful about jobs, and women’s rights at work, and I make no bones about it.
The leaders of the campaign that wants us to leave the EU say that they can’t guarantee that people wouldn’t lose their jobs - but it’s a risk worth taking. But it’s not their jobs at risk. We need more jobs not fewer. Let’s not make getting a job harder.
And I’m fearful about our rights at work - and with good reason. Look at the leaders of the leave campaign. They never fought for your rights at work - they’ve fought against them. They say they want to get rid of the “social chapter” and cut “red tape” and scrap regulation. That’s your right to paid holiday they’re talking about, your maternity leave, your paternity pay. We need better rights at work, not to have to start fighting to defend the rights that we already have.
So I challenge them today - you’ve said you want to “cut red tape” and scrap “£600m of regulation. Don’t speak in code. Be honest about it. Admit that means you would abolish the rights to maternity leave and paternity leave, scrap the laws that stop employers treating part-timers as second class citizens and which make employers pay for holiday leave.
And she says people should not blame immigrants for the state of the NHS.
Immigration is a big issue so I want to put out some facts. There’s more immigration from outside the EU than people coming from other EU countries.
If you’re worried about the NHS - don’t blame immigrants. The person from Ireland, or Spain or Portugal is more likely to be the nurse at your bedside than queuing in A and E. So don’t blame the EU for problems in the NHS - that’s down to the government.
10.23am BST
10:23
Farron says the Vote Leave campaign has been particularly dishonest on the subject of public spending.
Their big red bus says you can save £350m a week, and then spend it all on the NHS. A complete con. And they’re still driving it round despite the figure being rubbished by every economist under the sun.
And it’s not just the NHS this made-up, magic money is spent on. This dossier shows they have made two dozen different spending commitments.
Want more money for schools? You got it. Roads, railways, houses. Yep. Do you want to pay junior doctors more, increase welfare spending and slash the deficit all in one go? Of course you do.
You can even have more submarines if that is your thing.
How about abolishing prescription charges? Cutting your council tax by more than half? Slashing VAT – and your energy bills too while they’re at it.
They have even said they’d spend millions and millions filling in Britain’s potholes.
All of which sounds very tempting, especially that last one - filling in potholes is a cause very close to every Liberal Democrat’s heart.
But, if you add all these things up, it would cost £113bn.
One hundred and thirteen billion pounds.
He says there was a particularly strong example of Vote Leave’s dishonesty at the weekend.
Another clear as day example of one of their cons was just this week. On Saturday, they said by 2020, we can give the NHS a £100 million per week cash injection. On Sunday, they said we wouldn’t leave the EU until after 2020. So where would this magic money come from? They are literally making it up as they go along, trying to con the British public along the way.
10.20am BST
10:20
Tim Farron says Vote Leave campaign is 'based on lies'
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is speaking now.
He says he wants to put a positive case for the EU, but it is important to say that the Vote Leave case is based on lies, he says.
I believe in the positive case for Europe. But I cannot stand back and allow the leave campaign to guide us towards economic ruin, because of a campaign based on lies.
How betrayed will people feel if they vote to leave Europe based on the reasons presented by the Leave Campaign, only to see in the weeks, months and years that follow that those reasons were utter, invented rubbish.
10.17am BST
10:17
Cameron says leaving the EU would 'put a bomb under our economy'
Cameron says Vote Leave have not explained what terms of access the UK would have to the EU market if it left.
They have offered many different models, he says.
He says leaving the EU would generate three effects.
One: there would be an immediate shock effect.
Almost everyone now agrees, from the Governor of the Bank of England to the IMF, the OECD to the Treasury, 9 in 10 economists to, yes, even some Leave campaigners, there would be an economic shock if we left Europe.
Let’s be clear what that means:
The pound falling; prices rising; house prices collapsing; mortgage rates increasing; businesses going bust; and unemployment going up.
In other words: a recession.
Two: there would be an uncertainty effect.
We’d have to renegotiate our relationship with 27 other EU countries…
…and with 53 countries and territories with whom we have deals through the EU.
Given that it took Greenland 3 years – and they just sell fish...
…and Canada 7 years – and they haven’t even finished…
…we’d face a decade of uncertainty.
There’s nothing the people who create our jobs and grow our economy hate more.
And think about it for someone starting out. Leaving school. Beginning that apprenticeship. Looking forward to graduating.
Do we want those young people, the future of our country, to face a decade of uncertainty?
Three: there’d be a trade effect.
Nearly half of what we sell goes to Europe.
And, with a worse deal, in the long term our trade would shrink and become more expensive.
Think of the impact on BMW, for example. 80 per cent of Minis are exported.
Think of the wider impact: fewer businesses, fewer jobs, a smaller economy and less money for our schools and hospitals.
Add those things together – the shock impact, the uncertainty impact, the trade impact – and you put a bomb under our economy.
And the worst thing is we’d have lit the fuse ourselves.
10.12am BST
10:12
Cameron says Vote Leave's failure to set out economic vision is 'undemocratic' and 'reckless'
David Cameron is speaking at the Britain Stronger in Europe event.
He says Britiain will be stronger if it stays in the EU.
And he challenges Vote Leave to explain what would happen if Britain left.
By failing to set out an economic plan, they are being “undemocratic” and “reckless” he says.
He says the British economy is slowing because of the uncertainty facing the UK.
He says today Britain Stronger in Europe is publishing a document highlighting the inconsistencies in the Vote Leave case.
10.08am BST
10:08
Here is the scene where David Cameron is about to share a platform with Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, and Natalie Bennett, the Green leader, to make the case for staying in the EU.
9.54am BST
09:54
Here are the YouGov tables with full details of their poll (pdf).
Latest EU referendum poll: Leave leads by four points https://t.co/Sd2GpOktFt pic.twitter.com/w5Pzdc3Kdl
9.42am BST
09:42
Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru, has urged young people to make sure they are registered to vote before tomorrow, the final day for registration. She said:
The younger generation have most at stake in this referendum. It is today’s eighteen year olds and twenty-somethings who will live with the legacy of the outcome longer than any of us older people. To all of you - I urge you not to let others determine your future.
The fact that you can travel freely throughout the European Union to learn, to explore and broaden your horizons is cause for celebration.
There are numerous EU safeguards - from employment rights, to human rights, women’s rights, environmental protections. Do we trust Westminster and especially the Tories in Westminster to protect these and act in Wales’s best interests?
9.26am BST
09:26
TNS has sent out more details of its poll. As Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at TNS UK explains, the headline figures (Leave 43%, Remain 41%) only give Leave a lead because of the way the results have been weighted according to likelihood to turn out.
With the referendum less than a month away, we are now adjusting the voting intention for differential turnout. The support for ‘Remain’ looks to be softer than the support for ‘Leave’ and without this adjustment ‘Remain’ would have a three point lead over ‘Leave’. Whether or not ‘Remain’ supporters turn out will therefore be critical in the outcome.
Updated
at 9.29am BST
9.16am BST
09:16
Johnson claims UK face 'triple whammy of woe' if it stays in UK - but Cameron says he's wrong
Boris Johnson has coined the most colourful soundbite of the morning. According to the Daily Telegraph, he is going to claim in his speech today that taxpayers face “a triple whammy of woe” if they stay in the EU.
The risks of remain are massive. Not only do we hand over more than £350 million a week to the EU, but if we vote to stay the British people will be on the hook for even more cash. It is a triple whammy of woe: the eurozone is being strangled by stagnation, unemployment and a lack of growth, it could explode at any time and we will be forced to bail it out.
The botched bureaucratic response to the migration crisis means the Eurocrats are demanding even more of our money. And now we find that there is a £20 billion black hole in the EU’s finances.
Vote Leave is claiming that unmet costs in the EU’s budget could mean the UK having to contribute an extra £2.4bn. The other two “whammies” are supposed extra contributions because of the immigration crisis, and supposed contributions to future eurozone bailouts.
As Claire reported earlier, Cameron has used Twitter to say that Johnson’s claims are “simply wrong”. (See 8.33am.)
