‘Brits don’t quit,’ says Cameron in last-minute EU referendum appeal
Print Edition
BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday made a dramatic last-minute appeal to voters to back staying in the European Union two days before a referendum, as polls indicated an outcome too close to call.
Britons vote tomorrow on whether to quit the 28-nation bloc amid warnings from world leaders, investors and companies that a decision to leave would diminish the former imperial power’s influence, unleash turmoil on markets and send shock waves around the Western world.
In a rare televised address outside his Downing Street office, Cameron repeated his message that leaving the EU would jeopardize Britain’s economy and its national security, with fewer jobs and higher prices.
“Brits don’t quit,” he said, using the official backdrop to make a direct pitch to older voters considered more euroskeptic and more likely to vote.
“It will just be you in that polling booth. Just you, taking a decision that will affect your future, your children’s future, your grandchildren’s future.”
The Conservative prime minister’s intervention, which was billed as a significant statement but not publicized in advance, came as an opinion poll showed support for remaining in the EU shrinking. The Survation poll put the “Remain” camp just one percentage point ahead of the campaign for a so-called Brexit.
Commentators said the hastily arranged appearance suggested Cameron, who promised the referendum in 2013 under pressure from lawmakers in his party, and the “Remain” campaign were very worried about the outcome.
Arron Banks, a multi-millionaire insurance tycoon who is funding one of the “Leave” campaigns, said on Twitter: “Cameron is panicked, it’s out of his hands now.”
As each side sought to play trump cards, the pro-EU “Britain Stronger in Europe” campaign issued a poster of a door leading into a dark void with the slogan: “Leave and there’s no going back.”
Former England soccer captain David Beckham, a hugely popular figure, added his voice to celebrity supporters of staying in.
“For our children and their children we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone,” he said.
“Leave” campaigners stepped up their focus on what they call uncontrolled immigration, saying Cameron had been warned his goal of reducing arrivals was impossible due to EU rules.
The anti-EU UK Independence Party issued a poster showing a traffic jam with the message “The school over-run” and saying nearly one in four of Britain’s primary schools were full or oversubscribed.
The EU — already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the eurozone — could lose its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial center.
George Soros, the billionaire who bet against the pound in 1992, wrote in an article for the Guardian newspaper that a vote to leave would trigger a bigger devaluation than the fall on Black Wednesday, when market pressure forced sterling out of the European exchange rate mechanism.
Campaigning had been suspended for three days after the murder of pro-EU lawmaker Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed last Thursday.
Some “Leave” campaigners accuse the “Remain” camp of exploiting her death as part of what they portray as a campaign of scaremongering by the establishment at home and abroad.
After Cox’s murder, polls indicated sentiment had swung back to the “Remain” campaign.
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