Brown seeks to reassure wavering Labour voters about EU

Former prime minister Gordon Brown will today seek to reassure wavering Labour voters that the impact of immigration can be eased without leaving the European Union.

Mr Brown's intervention comes as Remain campaigners are increasingly worried that many Labour voters in parts of England are backing Brexit because of migration.

The Leave campaign is targeting working class Labour voters, particularly in the midlands and north of England, some of whom blame migration from the EU for pressure on hospitals and schools.

Mr Brown will use a speech today to talk about how such pressures can be eased without damaging the economy by leaving the EU.

Pressure

“These communities need European Union financial support where there’s pressure on the health services and schools and on amenities, and I think the government and the European Union together could do more to help communities that have felt that they are under pressure with their schools and their hospitals in particular,” the former prime minister told

Dermot Murnaghan

on Sky News.

“When we were in government we had a Migration Assistance Fund for communities that were under pressure.

"There are some European measures that help communities under pressure. This is a problem that Europe should share together."

The Leave campaign accused David Cameron of terrifying pensioners yesterday after he warned that pensions could suffer and the elderly could lose their bus passes if Britain votes to leave next week. Citing a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) he said the economic downturn likely after Brexit could leave a hole in Britain's budget of between £20 billion and £40 billion (€25.3 billion-€50.6 billion).

That would call into question the government’s promise to ringfence spending on pensions and to protect the value of pensioners’ benefits.

Evenly divided

“We’d have to make different choices and our pensions promise is based on a growing economy. Our economy would be smaller and that would have consequences,” Mr Cameron told the BBC’s

Andrew Marr

.

Employment minister Priti Patel, campaigning for Leave, accused the prime minister of undermining his own election manifesto as part of a campaign of fear. "I simply think this is an unrealistic statement, another intervention that is quite frankly there to terrify pensioners in a quite demeaning way.

“I think our pensioners are more intelligent than that, I think they can make up their own minds,” she said.

Two new polls show public opinion almost evenly divided with the referendum 10 days away. An Opinium poll for The Observer showed support for Remain at 44 per cent, with 42 per cent backing Leave.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times put Leave one point ahead with 43 per cent to Remain's 42 per cent.

Generosity and hope

Ukip leader

Nigel Farage

claimed yesterday that there had been a shift towards Leave in the past two weeks as voters warmed to the idea of defying the establishment.

“People are fed up of being threatened by David Cameron. People are beginning to put two fingers up to the political class,” he said.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who has criticised Mr Farage's rhetoric on migration, said yesterday that he would vote to remain in the EU.

"In no sense do I have some divine hotline to the right answer. We each have to make up our own minds. But for my part, based on what I have said and on what I have experienced, I shall vote to remain," he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

“I hope and pray that the result will be reached with the aim of a good Britain in a good Europe, whether as part of the EU or not.

“I pray that each person’s vote will be based on generosity, hope, confidence.”