Mr Cameron has dismissed talk of a second referendum as being “for the birds”, insisting he would respond to a Leave vote by immediately triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out a two-year process for negotiating terms for withdrawal. A vote to leave is the gamble of the century.
Advertisement
It was widely seen as backing for the idea of a fresh vote – also backed by former Tory leader Michael Howard and considered a valuable weapon for winning over wavering voters.
He continued: “What I want is to get out and then negotiate a series of trade arrangements around the world”.
Senior ministers called on Sunday for a truce in a heated debate on Britain’s membership of the European Union, saying the ruling Conservative Party must be civil if it wants to stay in power.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the only certainty of exit is uncertainty; that leaving Europe is fraught with risk”, he wrote.
He said the “emergency brake” curb on migrant workers’ benefits secured by Mr Cameron as a central plank of his renegotiation deal would have no “significant effect”. “The risks to our economy are clear and would leave the jobs and prosperity of the British people dangerously exposed”.
‘What I owe the country as a chancellor is a serious, sober and principled analysis of what the country faces if we leave the European Union’.
Lyons denied this, saying Johnson’s stance was “very genuine”. Firstly, I believe that we should be a self-governing, independent nation, free to run our economy in our best interests. “Britain could have a really great future, with a more dynamic economy and a happier population”, Johnson told The Times newspaper.
Johnson said he was unbothered by the attack, but he is now planning to play an even greater role in the European Union referendum campaign.
“People will say all sorts of things”. In a thinly veiled jab at Johnson over the referendum, Cameron also told parliament on Monday: “I am not standing for re-election, I have no other agenda than what is best for our country”.
Around 400 people attended the event last night where Mr Johnson delivered a speech and did an audience Q&A, taking questions on all manner of subjects from police and crime commissioners to his background, the life of an MP and being the Mayor of London.
Speaking on Andrew Marr, Labour’s Angela Eagle said the Conservatives were in “internal meltdown” over the issue of Europe and accused eurosceptics of wanting to turn the clock back to the 1970s and basing economic strategy on trade links with the Commonwealth. “When he’s finished doing the Hokey Cokey, perhaps he’d come clean with people about how bad it would be”.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s clarification, he told BBC1’s Sunday Politics: “I don’t agree with him. But clearly Boris has thought about this over the course of the last week and in today’s Times newspaper he now totally disowns the concept of a double referendum, so he is in this for the proper fight”.
Advertisement
“This is an issue that will be decided by the voters of the United Kingdom in June and we certainly hope that (they) reach that conclusion”, Lew added, in unusually direct comments on foreign political matters.
