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David Cameron makes final plea for Britain to vote to remain in the EU David Cameron makes final plea for Britain to vote to remain in the EU
(about 1 hour later)
David Cameron has made a final impassioned plea to the British people to vote to stay in the European Union, at a rally which brought together leading politicians from across the political spectrum. David Cameron criss-crossed the country on Wednesday in a final effort to warn Britain’s voters against rejecting the EU in the historic poll, that will also be read as a referendum on his premiership.
Following speeches from the former Labour premier Gordon Brown, the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron and the Green MP Caroline Lucas, the prime minister called on voters to reject the “untruths” of the leave campaign. Cameron was joined last night by the former prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir John Major, the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, and the Green MP Caroline Lucas, in a final display of cross-party unity as the polls pointed to a close finish.
With his voice breaking, Cameron pleaded with voters to “put jobs first, put the economy first” and attacked Michael Gove’s comparison of anti-Brexit experts to Nazis, saying: “That is the extent to which they have lost it.” Appearing in his shirt sleeves, and with his voice breaking at times, the prime minister issued an impassioned personal plea to the public to reject the “untruths” of the leave campaign. He pleaded for voters to “put jobs first, put the economy first”.
The prime minister said the referendum vote was “a choice of a lifetime” and voters should “think of your children and your grandchildren … we don’t want to cut them off from opportunity, cut them off from the world, we want to give them the best chance. That’s why we should vote remain tomorrow.” The prime minister will vote in his constituencyon Thursday morning, before returning to Downing Street to watch the results come in overnight. He is expected to make a statement before financial markets open Friday morning, once the result emerges, to reassure the City whose nervousness has been betrayed by volatility in the pound over the past few days.
The rally at the University of Birmingham follows a punishing referendum campaign that has split the ruling party and exposed damaging rifts over the impact of immigration from EU countries. Final polls suggested the result was too close to call, with a TNS poll published last night saying 43% would vote to leave, while 41% would vote to remain, and 16% were undecided or not voting.
The prime minister is already facing calls from some Tory donors and MPs to stand down regardless of whether Britain votes to remain or leave the EU. A separate Opinium poll showed 45% backing leave and 44% opting for remain, with 9% were still undecided.
The event was meant to emphasise the remain campaign’s broad cross-party appeal. It also included former trade union leader Brendan Barber, former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown and business leaders. A No 10 insider insisted the mood was “buoyant” last night, despite concerns that poor weather could affect the turnout that remain campaigners are looking for to secure victory. Labour’s grassroots supporters are expected to be essential to getting the vote out on Thursday.
Cameron walked on to a stage erected outside the university’s central court with his sleeves rolled up. A Vote Leave source insisted that the group had a strong and targeted ground operation, arguing that his opponents were visible but not behaving in a strategic way.
“I am so proud that there is such a broad alliance that has come together to keep Britain within a reformed EU,” he said. Brown’s appearance in Birmingham last night alongside the man whose victory at the 2010 general election ejected him from Downing Street, was the last in the unlikely political alliances that have characterised this hard-fought campaign. The former Labour leader referred to Jo Cox, the MP murdered on 16 June, and criticised the tone of the referendum debate, in a speech which was greeted with cheers and whoops from a mixed audience of mainly Lib Dem, Tory and Labour activists.
After praising speeches by Brown and Farron, he chose to emphasise the need to protect the economy by not risking an exit from the EU. “This is not the Britain I know, this is not the Britain I love. The Britain I know is better than the Britain of these debates, of insults, of posters,” he said. “The Britain I know is a Britain of Jo Cox. The Britain‎ where people are tolerant – and not prejudiced and where people hate.”
“What is full square on the ballot paper is the future of the British economy … A strong economy is everything. And it’s a fact that it will be weaker if we leave and stronger if we stay,” he said. “On the ballot paper is British jobs, British families and that is why we must vote remain.” The killing of Cox last week led to an abrupt pause in the bitter campaign, and came just after Ukip’s leader, Nigel Farage, unveiled a van poster showing a line of refugees with the slogan Breaking Point.
He listed the names of economic bodies such as the IMF. “What is the response of the leave campaign? It is to say that Britain has had enough of experts. Today they were even comparing experts to Nazi propagandists. That is the extent to which they have lost it,” he said. Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who held his own, pro-EU, rally in London on Wednesday, said campaigners on both sides had been brought up short by the terrible events of last Thursday. “I think the debate has become more rational over the past dew days, following the correct suspension of campaigning after Jo Cox’s appalling killing,” he told the Guardian.
He said that the government’s ability to tackle terrorism, the threat of Russia, climate change and Islamic State would be hindered if Britain left.
The prime minister added: “This is the choice of a lifetime. I would urge everyone when you go home tonight and go home tomorrow: look at your children. Think of your grandchildren. Think of their opportunities. We do not want to cut them off … we want to give them the best chance we can, and that is why we should vote remain tomorrow.”
Cameron told voters to ignore “untruths” from the leave side about Turkey joining the EU imminently, that the EU is going to build an army and that £350m is paid a week, saying: “Don’t go and vote on the basis of things which are not true.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Cameron came under sustained attack from his onetime allies. Iain Duncan Smith accused him of “lying to the British people” over his support for Turkey’s quest to join the EU.
Brown, meanwhile, invoked the memory of murdered MP Jo Cox in a speech that was greeted with cheers from a mixed audience of mainly Lib Dem, Tory and Labour activists.
He told them: “This is not the Britain I know, this is not the Britain I love. The Britain I know is better than the Britain of these debates, of insults, of posters. The Britain I know is better, a Britain that is better as it deals with some of the greatest challenges of our time.
Related: EU referendum live – 'The Britain I love is better than this,' Gordon Brown saysRelated: EU referendum live – 'The Britain I love is better than this,' Gordon Brown says
“The Britain I know is better than the exaggerations and over-exaggerations that we have seen. The Britain I know is a Britain of Jo Cox. The Britain‎ where people are tolerant and not prejudiced and where people hate hate. Corbyn has sought to make a distinctive Labour argument for remaining in the EU, and was joined at his party’s event by senior colleagues including the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Khan urged an enthusiastic crowd of Labour activists at the rally to go out and convince their friends, family and neighbours to vote remain.
“I want our country back‎, I want to end the intolerance and the prejudice and the hate. I want us to take control again so that unity replaces division. I want Britain to be the Britain that it should be, that faces the problems of the world and works with other countries to take the action that is necessary for the future. Cameron’s rally at the University of Birmingham followed a punishing referendum campaign, which has split the ruling party and exposed damaging rifts over the impact of immigration from EU countries. The prime minister is already facing calls from some Tory donors and MPs to stand down regardless of whether Britain votes to remain or leave the EU.
“And we will be no less ‎British as a result of cooperating with our neighbours.” The event was meant to emphasise the remain campaign’s broad cross-party appeal. It also included the former trade union leader Brendan Barber, the former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown, and business leaders.
The former prime minister said the EU had ended 1,000 years of European conflict and ushered in a new era of human rights. “Now there is no war, Europe is at peace,” he said. But the divide within the Conservative party was laid bare once again in the final day of campaigning, with Cameron using his speech at the rally to attack Michael Gove for comparing the experts who have warned against Brexit to Nazis. “That is the extent to which they have lost it,” he said.
On Wednesday, Cameron also made his strongest attack of the campaign so far on Gove, who has long been a close political friend. Gove, the justice secretary, who supports Brexit, had earlier apologised – after comparing those saying a leave decision would cause recession to scientists paid by Hitler to devise the scientific results that were wanted by the state.
Gove had likened those claiming that a vote to leave would lead to a recession to scientists paid by Adolf Hitler’s government to come up with the scientific results wanted by the state. “We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons, of course, he was denounced was because he was Jewish,” Gove said. “They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said, ‘look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough’.” He later said that his remarks had been “clumsy and inappropriate”.
“We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons, of course, he was denounced was because he was Jewish,” Gove said. “They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said, ‘Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough.’” The bitter public spat between the two longstanding political allies underlined the battle facing Cameron as he seeks to reunite his party on Friday. Cameron has insisted that he will stay on whatever the result and press ahead with the priorities announced in last month’s Queen’s speech, including prison reform and measures to boost children’s life chances. But few at Westminster believe he could survive for long if the British public back Brexit.
After Gove’s comments, the prime minister told Sky News: “To hear the leave campaign today sort of comparing independent experts and economists to Nazi sympathisers – I think they have rather lost it. Gove insisted that once the public’s verdict was in, Cameron would be able to draw on “a fund of goodwill, and a reservoir of civility, and a sense of common purpose, that unites Conservatives” – assets that have at times appeared in short supply in recent weeks.
“These people are independent – economists who have won Nobel prizes, business leaders responsible for creating thousands of jobs, institutions that were set up after the war to try to provide independent advice. It is right to listen.” The justice secretary did not rule out the idea that he could be shifted to another role in a post-referendum reshuffle. “I enjoy doing the job that I do at the moment, I think it’s a privilege to do it, I’d like to carry on doing it, but it’s up to the prime minister whether he keeps me in that job or finds someone better,” he said.
The leave campaign’s Boris Johnson kicked off the last day of the campaign with a visit to Billingsgate fish market in London, before flying across the country to tell voters that 23 June can be “independence day”. Another of the prime minister’s closest political friends, the former mayor of London Boris Johnson, criss-crossed the country on Wednesday, beginning at 4am at Billingsgate fish market in east London and urging the public to back Brexit. From Billingsgate, Johnson zig-zagged from Malden in Essex to Ashby in the east Midlands, and from Wolverhampton in the west Midlands by car and plane.
Wrapping up his whirlwind tour in Darlington, County Durham, the former London mayor said leave was “on the verge of victory” as he urged voters to “believe in our country” and back Brexit despite the warnings of “Project Fear”. Speaking at a campaign walkabout in Ashby, Johnson said: “Huge decisions about our own country are being made by official who most people in Ashby don’t know. Democracy is vital but it only works when you can kick the buggers out when they make a mistake. If we vote to leave we can take back control of our democracy and our immigration policy.”
“This will not come again,” said Johnson. “Vote Leave tomorrow, take back control of our country and our democracy and stick up for hundreds of millions of people around Europe who agree with us, who agree that the EU is going in the wrong direction.” Johnson, fuelled by coffee, was then collected from the city’s race course by helicopter where he went on to Selby, Darlington and then off to Scotland, blitzing regional media rounds at each location, and meeting supporters.
Meanwhile Ukip’s leader, Nigel Farage, for whom Thursday’s poll will be the culmination of a decades long fight to sever Britain’s ties with the rest of Europe, portrayed the campaign as the “people against the establishment” and urged non-voters to give the political class a shock. However, he pulled out of his final chance to make a public pitch on a Channel 4 television debate, citing family reasons.