‘Leave’ takes Brexit poll lead as Major turns fire on Johnson

Bloomberg

Campaigners to get Britain out of the European Union have moved into the lead, according to a YouGov poll that increases the pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron with less than three weeks until the
referendum.
The online poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme on Monday put “Leave” voters at 45 percent and “Remain” at 41 percent, with 11 percent undecided, according to an e-mailed statement.
The poll comes on the back of others showing Brexit campaigners narrowing the gap or even leapfrogging “Remain” in the debate to sway voters ahead of the June 23 ballot. A second online poll released on Monday, by TNS and conducted May 19-23, gave “Leave” a lead of 43 percent support to 41 percent.
The ever-tighter race has split the ruling Conservative Party, weighed on the pound and rattled “Remain” campaigners led by Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who have stepped up warnings of the economic consequences of a pullout from the EU.
Cameron hit back on Monday with a joint letter signed by senior figures from other political parties accusing the “Leave” campaign of perpetrating an “economic con-trick” on the public. That warning came a day after former Prime Minister John Major took to the airwaves to condemn the “squalid” Brexit campaign and dismissed its most prominent supporter, former London Mayor Boris Johnson, as a “court jester.”

Major Interview
Those advocating an exit have begun “to feed out to the British people a whole galaxy of inaccurate and frankly untrue information,” Major said in an interview Sunday on BBC television’s “Andrew Marr Show.”
“On the subject that they’ve veered towards, having lost the economic argument, of immigration, I think their campaign is verging on the squalid.”
In other developments in the referendum debate:
The BBC reported that members of parliament supporting Remain were considering trying to block any move to take the U.K. out of the EU single market in the event of a Leave vote.
The Telegraph said Johnson would warn of a £2.4 billion bill from the EU if Britain stayed in the bloc Labour’s Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle warned a vote to leave would put workers’ rights at risk Conservative Defense Minister Julian Brazier said the EU undermines national security and the ability to keep U.K. citizens safe Seven senior former police chiefs united to say Britain will be safer in the EU and leaving would “put us at a disadvantage in tackling terrorism and organised crime” As the vote approaches, both sides are intensifying their rhetoric, with the“Remain” campaign focusing on the economic dangers of a Brexit, and “Leave” stoking fears of uncontrolled immigration.
Net Immigration
“If we control the number of people who come here, that means that we can get popular consent and support for migration,” Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who is pro-Brexit, said in an interview on ITV television’s “Peston on
Sunday.”
He said the plan would be to bring net immigration down to tens of thousands “in due course.”
Gove and Johnson have spent the past two weeks laying out policies they’d pursue after a vote to leave the EU, including scrapping taxes on gas and electricity and introducing a points-based immigration system, while denying they’re setting out an alternative program for government.