Brexit: British newspapers take sides ahead of EU referendum

The all-powerful British media has given its verdict ahead of the European Union referendum. Often criticised for a skewed coverage of the EU, with most displaying an anti-EU bias, Britain’s daily newspapers last week set out their position ahead of the June 23rd vote.

On Tuesday, the country's best-selling title, The Sun, advocated a leave vote in a front-page editorial under the title "BeLEAVE in Britain."

This position was echoed by the traditionally anti-EU Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Times parted with the Sun to advocate a Remain vote. Unsurprisingly the Europhile Guardian and Financial Times also backed Remain.

This weekend the Sunday papers nailed their colours to the mast, setting out their position in their last publication before next Thursday’s referendum. Here is what they said:

The Sunday Times

In a lengthy leader, the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times called for a British exit from the EU.

Criticising David Cameron’s “scaremongering”, the newspaper said the “EU’s elites” have failed in their handling of both the migration crisis and the euro crisis, “sacrificing a generation of young Europeans to inactivity and despair”. What galvanised the British economy was not the entry into Europe in 1973, it argues, but the series of reforms initiated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Europe has come to stand for “big government, big bureaucracy and big lobbying – we don’t” it states, as it urged voters to back Leave. “We must be prepared for difficulties, but we must hold our nerve . . . This vote may be the best opportunity we shall ever have to call a halt to the onward march of the centralising European project driven by the inherent flaws in the euro zone.”

The Mail on Sunday

"For a safer, freer, more prosperous – and yes, an even Greater Britain: why we urge you to vote Remain." It was with these words the Mail on Sunday announced its support for a Remain vote, just four days before the poll.

Breaking ranks with its sister daily title, the Daily Mail, the Sunday paper asserted national independence is on offer only "at a price" It warned that, if the UK leaves the EU, the country will face "higher tariffs, turmoil in the financial markets and a period of economic uncertainty".

While conceding mass immigration remains a problem, it asked “whether the immigration problem is enough on its own to decide the matter”. The Australian points system for migrants was “misplaced and poorly researched”.

The paper noted that, since 1973, Britain had been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. “We may be lured by the notion of being marginally freer, but we will be significantly poorer,” it concluded. “This newspaper believes that this is not the time to risk the peace and prosperity of our nation.”

The Sunday Telegraph

The traditionally eurosceptic Sunday Telegraph unsurprisingly backed an exit from the EU in its editorial on Sunday. Criticising the "grim pessimism" that has characterised the Remain campaign, it said the Leave campaign had "articulated an ambitious vision for Britain as an independent nation, once again free to make its own decisions".

Instead of something that was supposed to be beneficial to the British economy, the EU has instead proved to be “extremely expensive and increasingly detrimental to job creation.”

Noting “about 50 per cent of our laws and 70 per cent of our regulations” originate in Brussels, it argued the lifting of regulations would liberate businesses.

The EU has “all the trappings of a superstate” as it seeks to turn itself into a “single political entity with its own currency, a central bank, no internal frontiers, a supreme court, a parliament, a civil service in the shape of the commission, and an embryonic police and judicial system”.

In addition, the “European dreamers want to go further”.

The case for leaving “is not negative and jingoistic. It is optimistic and hopeful”, it concluded. “The EU belongs to the past. On Thursday we hope the country chooses the future – and votes to leave.”

The Observer

The pro-EU and left-leaning Observer called for a Remain vote to secure an "international, liberal and open Britain."

Describing Thursday’s vote as the “biggest democratic decision of our lifetimes”, the newspaper argued that membership of the world’s largest single market “played a critical part in Britain’s transformation from the economic malaise of the 1970s into the world’s fifth-largest economy”. But it said that the EU was “always much more than an economic project”, a founding principle that is easily forgotten in an era when the idea of European nations warring against each other seemed “inconceivable”.

Describing the EU as “the world’s most successful example of international co-operation”, it says those advocating Leave “hark back to a world where sovereignty and control can sit nearly within the borders of the nation state”.

While the EU was not perfect, it had been a “force for good”, the paper argued. It also criticised some members of the Leave camp for using “deliberately misleading campaign material, which borders on the xenophobic and racist”.

Whatever the verdict of the referendum, the paper called for those in power to unite the country. “The debate has illuminated a growing cleavage in modern Britain, with the winners of globalisation on one side, and the losers on the other.” It urged voters “not to turn our backs” on Europe. “Remaining in the EU will not magically eliminate the challenges Britain faces. But if we choose to do so, it will keep Britain at the heart of reforming the European project.”

Irish Mail on Sunday

Remain: "In this country we know all about isolation and the moribund years of de Valera's vain attempt at self-sufficiency. That did not work in the 1930s and it won't work for Britain now. At the same time, if Brexit happens, Brussels must share the blame. The European elite has, at its heart, a democratic elite unpalatable to many."

The Sunday Times (Irish edition)

Leave: “Yes, Britain must be prepared for a bumpy ride, but this vote may be the only opportunity to call a halt to the onward march of the centralising European project. Such a state would be neither in Britain’s interests nor Europe’s.”