Cameron relies on Labour to avert Brexit

Bloomberg

Prime Minister David Cameron turned to his traditional rivals in the opposition Labour Party to win over undecided voters with just 10 days to stop Britain from voting to leave the European Union.
Gordon Brown, who was ousted by Cameron in 2010, was to make the case to stay in the 28-nation bloc, and other media interventions have been moved aside to ensure the former premier’s message is heard. The support of Labour voters will be crucial if the government is to avert a so-called Brexit in the June 23 referendum.
“When all the forces of Labour get together it’s a very powerful voice in the country,” Brown said on Monday in a BBC radio interview. In a speech later in the day in Leicester, central England, he was to say “we will not rest and I will not stop explaining why nine million Labour voters have most to gain from remaining in the EU,” according to extracts released by his office. A vote to remain “is stronger for jobs, for rights at work and maintaining a British voice on the world stage.”
With most opinion polls showing the EU referendum too close to call, markets have been spooked by uncertainty over the outcome, compounded by a distrust of pollsters who failed to predict the result of last year’s general election.
Scots Referendum
The government is placing its faith in Brown having the same impact as he did in the run-up to the Scottish referendum two years ago. Then, he helped turn the tide against independence with an impassioned plea for Scots to stay in the UK.
This time he’s against a push for Brexit that has gained momentum as campaigners focus on immigration, suggesting the government’s message on the economic risks isn’t getting through to voters. The ‘Leave’ campaign was buttressed on Monday by a Migration Watch report that said if Britain remains in the EU, net migration will be more than a quarter of a million for 20 years, with 60 percent of it coming from the 28-nation bloc.
Cameron has responded by stepping up his rhetoric, last week accusing ‘Leave’ campaigners of lying and sanctioning personal attacks on anti-EU advocates, including former London Mayor Boris Johnson. Cameron wrote on Twitter that Energy Secretary Amber Rudd was “a star” after she had used a TV debate to accuse Johnson of being untrustworthy and only interested in his own ambitions.
“You know when someone is losing an argument because they suddenly get all rattled, and personal, and sometimes even a little bit menacing,” Johnson wrote in his column for Monday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “We get an unending and intensifying diet of fear.”