David Cameron has accused some of those campaigning for Britain to leave the EU of viewing potential job losses and economic disruption as a price worth paying for getting out.
Making the case for remaining in the EU at a Vauxhall car factory in Chester, the prime minister said the Leave campaigners acknowledged that Brexit would cause an economic shock.
“It’s worth remembering what a shock really means,” he said. “It means pressure on the pound sterling. It means jobs being lost. It means mortgage rates might rise. It means businesses closing. It means hardworking people losing their livelihoods.
“For those who advocate leaving, lost jobs and a dented economy might be collateral damage, or a price worth paying.”
Increased costs
Leader of the House
Chris Grayling
, one of six cabinet ministers campaigning on the Leave side, rejected Mr Cameron’s charge, arguing that EU regulations increased costs for British businesses and inhibited job creation.
Mr Grayling claimed the prime minister’s renegotiation may have worsened Britain’s position in the EU because it included a specific British commitment not to impede the implementation of measures essential to the functioning of the euro zone.
“This is a significant – and underappreciated – loss of leverage,” he said. “We now lack a key tool in preventing further EU integration, which we might be dragged along into.
“And the routine process of integration is not going to stop here,” Mr Grayling said. “It does not need new treaties or agreements to carry on the process of harmonisation.
“The wording of the Lisbon Treaty and the almost unlimited scope of the Charter of Fundamental Rights give the EU institutions carte blanche to expand into more and more areas of competence. For all the talk about subsidiarity, the opposite is actually true.”
The referendum debate was overshadowed again on yesterday by the fallout from the Sun newspaper's claim, under the headline "Queen backs Brexit", that Queen Elizabeth had expressed Eurosceptic views during a 2011 lunch with former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Justice minister Michael Gove, who is campaigning on the Leave side, was also at the Privy Council lunch, a fact fuelling speculation that he was the source for the story.
Serious leak
Mr Cameron said yesterday that it would be “very serious” if a cabinet minister leaked remarks made by the queen. But he noted that Mr Gove said he did not know who the source of the
Sun
’s story was.
“Well, obviously that would be very serious,” the prime minister said. “But there’s a statement by Buckingham Palace denying the story, the former deputy PM has completely denied the story, and other people here have made very clear they don’t know where this story came from.”
Sun editor Tony Gallagher yesterday defended the story, telling the BBC that the newspaper knew more about the queen's views on Europe than it had published.
“There is not just one occasion when these views were aired,” Mr Gallagher said. “There was a second occasion where she expressed similarly scathing views about the EU.
“We didn’t put this in the paper with only one source. There were multiple sources for what we had to do.”
