David Cameron has dismissed as “nonsense” Boris Johnson’s “independence day” referendum rallying call to vote leave and insisted Britain would not be “shackled to a corpse” by voting to remain.
In a final round of interviews before the vote, the prime minister made the patriotic case for staying in the EU, which he insisted gave Britain the “best of both worlds”.
Johnson was greeted with a rousing ovation at the Wembley arena on Tuesday night when he said Friday would be “independence day” if Britain voted to leave.
Asked about the remark, Cameron told BBC Breakfast: “The idea that our country isn’t independent is nonsense. This whole debate demonstrates our sovereignty.”
And speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “We are not shackled to a corpse. You can see the European economies recovering. It is the largest single market in the world.“I am a deeply patriotic person about this country. We have not been invaded for a thousand years, we have got institutions that serve us well. I don’t want to give that up to some sort of united Europe and that’s not what we are going to do. We are out of the euro, out of ever closer union, we are proud Brits. But frankly we achieve more if we are in these organisations fighting for British interests and values.”
Cameron admitted that immigration, the issue that has dominated the campaign, is a challenge, but he said the blow to the economy would be a bigger problem if voters backed Brexit.
He told BBC Breakfast: “Immigration is a challenge and I think the debate last night showed that the leave campaign admitted they wouldn’t solve the immigration challenge by leaving the EU, but there would be a massive challenge for our economy – we would have fewer jobs, we would have less revenue, less ability to build the schools and hospitals that we need.
“There are good ways to control immigration but leaving the EU, leaving the single market, damaging our economy must be the wrong answer.”
Later he told Today: “In the debate last night the leave campaign admitted it could take 10 years to negotiate a trade deal with Europe. There are things we need to do to control immigration, but we are doing them. The wrong thing to do is leave the single market, damage our economy, damage businesses. And that’s the most important thing in this referendum.”
Cameron echoed remarks he made in an interview with the Guardian when he hit back at his former adviser Steve Hilton over the government’s immigration target. He insisted that reducing migration to tens of thousands was “the right ambition for Britain”.
He said: “As recently as 2008 there was net negative migration in terms of Europe. We have had an extraordinary five-year period where we have created more jobs than the rest of the European Union put together. That is not a normal period. I think the eurozone economies are recovering. We shouldn’t leave the EU on the basis of [immigration] because if we left the single market we would do untold damage to our economy, to businesses and jobs and to family finances …”
He insisted he understood the job fears of those troubled by immigration. He said: “I recognise there are people in our country who haven’t had as good chances as I would like them to have, that haven’t got that job or that apprenticeship or that training and we need to reach out to them and explain that staying in the European Union and making sure that we tackle these problems together is going to increase people’s life chances.
“If I had to sum up this whole campaign in a word, it would be that word – together.”
Earlier he told BBC Breakfast: “Britain is a great country but we have always been a country that makes our voice heard and gets things done by working with others. We don’t quit and walk away from organisations, we make them work for us.
Cameron’s plea came after the Sun urged its readers not to trust the prime minister.
It ran a double-page spread featuring a large photograph of Cameron with the headline: “Look into his eyes … and then make sure you vote leave tomorrow.”
On the issue of trust, Cameron pointed to claims made by the leave campaign on the costs of staying in Europe and the prospect of Turkey joining the union. He said: “Let’s not make a decision that could really damage our economy on the basis of claims that have turned out not to be the case.”