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Major attacks Vote Leave 'deceit' as Johnson defends campaign

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    Major attacks Vote Leave 'deceit' as Johnson defends campaign

    In or out you'd be hard pressed to find yourself indifferent to John Major's comments. As he says, this decision is far to important. A decision that'll affect generations to come, and you might say otherwise if we remain, however the 'out' camp have provided no solid facts on what life outside the EU would be like. Only deceit.



    Major attacks Vote Leave 'deceit' as Johnson defends campaign - BBC News

    Major attacks Vote Leave 'deceit' as Johnson defends campaign

    John Major: 'Deceitful, misleading campaign'
    Former PM Sir John Major has hit out at the "squalid" and "deceitful" campaign to get Britain out of the EU.

    He told Andrew Marr he was "angry about the way the British people are being misled" by fellow Conservative Boris Johnson and Vote Leave.

    He urged Mr Johnson to stop putting out information on immigration and the NHS which he knew to be false.

    Mr Johnson stood by Vote Leave's figures and called for an end to "blue-on-blue" conflict.

    Follow the latest developments on our live page
    Sir John - a leading member of the Remain campaign - described Mr Johnson as a "court jester," who he suggested might not have the loyalty of Conservative MPs if he went on to become leader of a party he had "divided".

    He insisted he was not making a personal attack on the former London mayor but on the Vote Leave campaign as a whole, saying: "They are misleading people to an extraordinary extent".

    'Hungry python'

    "They are feeding out to the British people a whole galaxy of inaccurate and frankly untrue information.

    "And what they have not done is tell us what would be the position if we were to vote to leave," he told Andrew Marr.

    He said Vote Leave had lost the economic argument and were now "veering" towards immigration, where "their campaign is verging on the squalid".

    Boris Johnson: "My view about the EU has changed, but that's because the EU has changed"
    He predicted "chaos" if Britain voted to leave in 23 June's referendum and claimed Britain would lose a "huge amount national income" through trade with Europe, adding: "These promises of expenditure on the National Health Service and elsewhere are frankly fatuous, they are a deceit."

    He claimed the NHS would be "about as safe" in the hands of Mr Johnson, Justice Secretary Mr Gove and former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith as a "pet hamster would be with a hungry python".

    And he suggested Mr Johnson knew Britain's contribution to the EU, after a rebate and money back for farmers, was "about one third" of the £350m claimed on the side of his Vote Leave battle bus.

    He said he feared the British people could vote to leave on the basis of "inaccurate information known to be inaccurate", which he regarded as "deceitful".

    'Take back control'

    But Mr Johnson told Marr the £350m figure was a "reasonable" one, arguing that, although some of it was returned by the EU, "this is money we cannot control," adding it could be spent on the NHS or other "one nation" priorities in the event of a Brexit.

    He said Vote Leave was setting out "an agenda for the government to take back control" after leaving the EU - and the Remain campaign had no "long-term vision for the economy" if immigration continued at its current rate.

    He predicted the UK's population could rise "inexorably", potentially as high as 80 million.

    Sir John also attacked Vote Leave's "depressing and awful" arguments on immigration, including the suggestion that 88 million Turkish people could "flood" into the UK if Turkey was given the right to join the EU.

    "Turkey will not be in the European Union for a very, very long time, if ever, and the Leave campaign know that. That's the point - they know that," he said.

    Mr Johnson hit back, saying: "Frankly, I don't mind whether Turkey joins the EU, provided the UK leaves the EU".

    'Frustrating'

    Pressed on his previous support for Turkey joining the EU, he said "that was back in the days when some of us thought that widening the EU would not mean this federalising, centralising, deepening process that we have seen".

    "The EU has changed out of all recognition since people like me first started advocating Turkish membership," he added.

    Quizzed by Andrew Marr about a new Vote Leave poster saying David Cameron could not be trusted on immigration, Mr Johnson said it was "frustrating" the government was not meeting its manifesto commitment to reduce annual net migration to the "tens of thousands".

    David Davis
    David Davis said the public did not like personal attacks
    He said he had hoped Mr Cameron could address this in his EU renegotiation, but that the PM "didn't get a sausage" from Brussels.

    He also said it was "absolute nonsense" that he was backing Brexit out of personal leadership ambitions.

    "Obviously there is going to be a temptation by one side or the other to try to turn it into a personality-driven conversation.

    "My view about the EU has changed but that is because the EU has changed out of all recognition."

    'Harsh' attacks

    The Vote Leave campaign accused Sir John of resorting to "name calling" rather than "a serious debate about the issues".

    Conservative MP David Davis said Sir John had been sent out by Number 10 to "reduce the credibility of the Leave campaign's claims" but the figures he was "bandying about" on the Marr show were not accurate in themselves.

    He said Sir John's personal attacks on Mr Johnson and other Vote Leave figures were "harsh" and "I don't think very wise".

    "I don't think the public like it. After 23 June we've got to pull the party together, make it work and with that sort of attack it's a very bad idea," he told the BBC's Sunday Politics.
    "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

    #2
    John Major snout in banking and EU gravy train.

    Part-timer Major earns £850,000 | This is Money

    Greedy self interest.

    Comment


      #3
      Perhaps a by-product of living in the top financial city in the world?
      "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

      Comment


        #4
        Snooze. Do you know nothing of the history of Euroscepticism in the Tory party? John Major aggressively attacking Vote Leave personalities. Breaking news: day follows night.

        Comment


          #5
          Tories have nothing better to do then fight amongst themselves.

          I wonder if we will get some "interesting" sex scandals this time as well...
          "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

          Comment


            #6
            Major is the worst prime minister in living memory. IMO worse that Brown.

            He started all the things that Labour finished in 1997. Fuel price escalator. ACT limiting.

            He threw away the Thatcher legacy.

            He should go and siot in the pavilion at Lords and keep his mouth shut. Unless a six should hit him in the gob....

            Comment


              #7
              Thatcher chose Major as her successor. So I argue he didn't throw away her legacy.
              "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by BrilloPad View Post
                Major is the worst prime minister in living memory. IMO worse that Brown.

                He started all the things that Labour finished in 1997. Fuel price escalator. ACT limiting.

                He threw away the Thatcher legacy.

                He should go and siot in the pavilion at Lords and keep his mouth shut. Unless a six should hit him in the gob....
                ERM.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by BrilloPad View Post
                  Major is the worst prime minister in living memory. IMO worse that Brown.
                  Worse than Brown? Seriously?
                  His heart is in the right place - shame we can't say the same about his brain...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Mordac View Post
                    Worse than Brown? Seriously?
                    Yes. For the reason I stated above. You are quite entitled to disagree with me.

                    Comment

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