Boris Johnson took in a car factory as part of his day of campaigning for Vote Leave in Yorkshire. The former Mayor did the usual politician’s thing of touring the workshops of Ginetta, pointing at various pieces of equipment and asking the workers what it was that they were doing, before hopping in one of the carmaker’s vehicles – branded with Vote Leave insignia – for a spin. He drove it out of the factory before handing the wheel over to a proper driver, who proceeded to whizz him around in tight donuts in the car park outside, sending up a large amount of smoke from the burning rubber. ‘We’re taking back control!’ Boris pronounced happily as he clambered out of the passenger seat.
But does the Leave campaign really feel in control of this referendum campaign? Boris looked a little tense at his morning rally near the Shambles in York – though perhaps this was because he was aware that a chap in the crowd was threatening to egg him. And when he spoke to the press this afternoon, he was having to respond to the claims made by the Remain campaign, rather than setting the agenda himself. Perhaps that was just inevitable for today, as even a figure as magnetic as Boris cannot compete with the might of the Treasury when it publishes an official report and when that official report is launched by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
He called the report published this morning by the Treasury on the risks of Brexit a ‘hoax’ and warned that this hoax would end up causing more damage than the event it was warning about:
‘My own feeling is that there is some risk now that the prophecies are so doom laden that they are at risk of becoming self-fulfilling, I am worried that they starting to talk Britain down, and I don’t think that is necessary and I think I’d draw your attention again to what the Prime Minister was saying only a few months ago.’
What the Prime Minister was saying only a few months ago, which the Leave campaign are quoting extensively, is that of course Britain would do well outside of the EU and those who said otherwise were scaremongering. But the problem for the Leave campaign is that even if Cameron has changed tack now that the referendum campaign has begun in earnest, that sort of scaremongering can work by sowing sufficient doubt in voters’ minds as to stop them backing such a big change. And the other problem is that currently the only days on which Leave seems to be dominating the headlines is when it triggers a big row about Hitler – or, as Penny Mordaunt did yesterday, when one of its ministers makes a claim about Turkey’s application to join the EU that is immediately slapped down by the other side. The Leave campaign ends up going in circles of defending itself against warnings from government departments or foreign leaders, or defending its spokespeople’s more outlandish claims, such as Boris’s comments about Hitler. But can it start setting the agenda itself?
Isabel Hardman
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