“Every EU country, including Britain, has a veto on any new country joining”.
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“The Leave campaign are making a very misleading claim about Turkey”.
His comments came as a response to claims by Armed Forces Minister Mordaunt, who said Turkey is likely to become a member of the European Union within the next eight years.
Ms Mordaunt replied: “No it doesn’t”.
“Even at that stage, we would be able to say no”.
On this narrow, but, you may say, important, point Ms Mordaunt is wrong.
But Mr Cameron’s spokesman added: “The Prime Minister has made it clear that he would veto any new country joining the European Union if it wasn’t in Britain’s interests” – a statement which suggests the Prime Minister is attempting to muddy the waters on Turkish membership ahead of the referendum.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Mr Cameron had been a strong supporter of Turkish membership in the past, tweeting: “Veto?”
But with the mood appearing to change this past week against Brexit, is this an attempt to reverse falling poll ratings?
The PM was asked about Mr Hilton’s comments as he unveiled a new Treasury report warning a vote to leave the European Union could trigger a recession.
With the June 23 referendum only weeks away, Leave and Remain campaigners are hewing to the two issues that will likely decide the vote: immigration and the economy.
On Saturday, an extract predicted that over the next two years, house prices would be as much as 18 percent less than they would be if the United Kingdom stayed in the EU.
But Cameron told broadcaster ITV that Turkey’s accession was not “remotely on the cards” in the near future and that Britain has a veto over it joining the EU.
“It could put up the cost of air travel, because if you are outside the single market – which is what those who want us to leave think – then you would face all sorts of bureaucracy and restrictions that you don’t face today”.
Energy minister Andrea Leadsom said: “This is an extraordinary claim and I’m amazed that Treasury civil servants would be prepared to make it”.
He told Pienaar’s Politics on BBC Radio 5: ” Well, we didn’t have a veto with the accession of eastern Europe, and we were told that 30,000 people a year would come, and it was ten times that number. “The EU is continuing the preparatory work for Turkey at an accelerating pace with all of this going forward in parallel”.
Highlighting a schism that extends far into the upper echelons of the party, both campaigns later issued briefing notes criticising senior Conservatives in the rival campaign, including pro-EU finance minister George Osborne and the figurehead of the Brexit campaign, Boris Johnson.
In an article for the Daily Mail, he said the PM’s “relatively modest” reform demands had received “arrogant and dismissive treatment”.
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“Sterling will not fall if we vote Leave, so claims of prices rises are wrong”, said Vote Leave spokesman Robert Oxley in an emailed statement. But I believe it is the ideal and idealistic choice for our times: “taking back power from arrogant, unaccountable, hubristic elites and putting it where it belongs – in people’s hands”.
