The big picture
Nigel Farage – that longtime espouser of Brexit – has so far been rather shouldered aside in the campaign by official Vote Leave frontmen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Today he’s back in the spotlight.
The Ukip leader (much to the chagrin of Vote Leave, who called it an “outrage”) will appear on ITV1 this evening for a Q&A with a live studio audience. David Cameron will do the same but, as has become the norm in this campaign, will not face Farage directly. Instead the two men will have 30 minutes of questions from audience members, moderated by ITV newsreader Julie Etchingham.
The BBC reports that an internal analysis commissioned by Leave.EU advised that Farage should be used only “sparingly” as a campaign spokesman because of the risk he could alienate voters with “a divisive or reactionary tone on issues like immigration”.
Farage is already under pressure, with a call for him to apologise this evening for comments suggesting mass sex attacks, such as those that took place in Cologne, could happen in the UK if it remains in the EU. He has already faced criticism from both sides of the campaign, but a letter in Tuesday’s Guardian from Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi, Labour peer and anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence, and former director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti says his remarks are “an age-old racist tool”:
In Tuesday evening’s debate, Nigel Farage should apologise for the fear and offence caused, retract his comments and promise to conduct future debates with the seriousness and gravity that they and the British public deserve.
Cameron will face his own pressures, too, with Vote Leave continuing to argue that EU rules have prevented the UK from deporting foreign criminals. The Outers have compiled a list of 50 offenders they say cannot be forced to leave, including Learco Chindamo, an Italian national who murdered headteacher Philip Lawrence in 1995. Chindamo – who was 15 when he stabbed Lawrence – could not be deported because he had lived in the UK since he was six years old.
Meanwhile, Janet Yellen, the head of the US Federal Reserve, has warned that the possibility of Brexit ranks alongside instability in the Chinese economy and sluggish global growth as a major threat to the American economy. In a speech on Monday Yellen said:
“One development that could shift investor sentiment is the upcoming referendum in the United Kingdom. A UK vote to exit the European Union could have significant economic repercussions.
You should also know:
- Nicky Morgan has attacked a ‘misleading, underhand’ Vote Leave website. The advertised link, which appears above the official government site in a Google search, asks individuals to fill in personal information and click “register to vote”. However, this doesn’t sign people up to vote, but instead provides their details to the out campaign.
- Bankers, traders and analysts are preparing to spend the night in the office on 23 June to respond to exit polls that could spark swings in foreign exchange and bond markets.
- Tony Blair’s camp is readying its defence to the Chilcot report, due on 6 July.
- You have until midnight tonight to register to vote in the referendum. (I mean, not you, organised Politics Live readers.)
Poll position
A fresh Telegraph/ORB poll – written up for the paper by one Lynton Crosby – puts the gap between Remain and Leave at just one point, with In on 48% and Out on 47%. Interesting (though perhaps predictable) discrepancies occur when those polled were asked which result would secure a stronger economy (45% Remain v 37% Leave) and which would improve the UK’s immigration system (54% Leave v 21% Remain).
A YouGov poll in the Times today sees Remain one point ahead on 43%, recovering from a four-point deficit in a similar poll last week. It also found that 46% of those polled thought the Remain campaign was dishonest, and 42% believed the same was true for Leave.
Diary
- At 9am Jeremy Corbyn unveils a poster on workers’ rights.
- At 10am Sajid Javid and Peter Mandelson will warn that British firms could face a £34.4bn billion “export tax” to trade with the EU post-Brexit.
- At 11.30 Lib Dem leaders past and present Tim Farron, Nick Clegg, Menzies Campbell and Paddy Ashdown do a Q&A on the referendum.
- At noon, Ukip reveals its new EU referendum poster.
- At 6pm, Gordon Brown is at LSE for the launch of a report by the LSE commission on the future of Britain in Europe.
- And at 9pm, the main event: Nigel Farage v David Cameron on ITV1.
Read these
Steven Rosenberg, the BBC Moscow correspondent, wonders whether Russian president Vladimir Putin would be pro-Brexit:
Russia is, indeed, ‘not involved’: after all, it’s not Russian voters who will decide whether the UK is in or out of the EU.
But ‘no interests in this field’? That is debatable.
‘If there’s a Brexit, if there’s a crisis in the European Union, this will be a local propaganda victory,’ claims Prof Sergei Medvedev from Moscow’s higher school of economics. He believes the Kremlin’s calculation is a simple one: Brexit = a weaker EU = a stronger Russia.
Over at the Huffington Post, Natalie Bennett, leader of the Greens, explains why she shared a platform with the prime minister yesterday – and why she thinks the media has the wrong story:
The questions from the assembled media were all directed at David Cameron. And they were predictably, boringly, unfruitfully, on script. Two were about internal conflicts within the Tory party. One was about how fervently the Labour party is promoting the ‘remain’ message. The prime minister blocked them with greatly practised ease.
That prompted me to go off script. As David Cameron wrapped up proceedings, I stepped forward with a message very explicitly directed at the media. I said that they were short-changing voters, short-changing democracy, by treating the referendum as being about internal party struggles …
The media has a choice. They can choose to cover this vital decision about the future of our nation, and the whole of Europe, as a Tory leadership contest. Or they can cover it properly, in a way that allows the voters of Britain to make this vital choice with solid information from a wide range of sources, critically examined.
Aditya Chakrabortty, right here in the Guardian, asks why any of us would trust politicians on the EU – or anything else:
British democracy in 2016 comes down to this: a prime minister can no longer come out and say something and expect to be believed. He or she must wheel out a common room-full of experts. He or she can expect to be called a liar in the press and by their colleagues. He or she can only hope that some of what they say resonates with an electorate that has tuned them out.
And mainstream politicians have only themselves to blame. Over the past three decades, Britons have been made a series of false promises. They have been told they must go to war with a country that can bomb them in 45 minutes – only to learn later that that was false. They have been assured the economy was booming, only to find out it was fuelled by house prices and tax credits.
Baffling claim of the day
Nigel Farage has told the Telegraph that he has not had an alcoholic drink for a week in preparation for tonight’s debate:
It is a big moment for the campaign – I am not taking it lightly; I am thinking very hard about it.
So all those other debates/elections/events/engagements were … not so big?
Celebrity endorsement of the day
We are spoilt for choice today. Keith Chegwin is for Brexit, according to an interview with bingo website mFortune Bingo (yes, that is a thing and you can watch the interview in full here. I have to confess I haven’t watched it because it appears to be two hours long. But feel free to report back). Chegwin told the site:
I think it’s always better to shut the door, then open it again and agree better terms.
Chegwin is joined in the Leave corner by Richard Fairbrass, aka half of Right Said Fred:
Don't forget that for those daft enough to vote 'remain' registration is best done on the 24th. https://t.co/CuA2BGUbY4
— Richard Fairbrass (@RFairbrass) June 6, 2016
While over in the Remain corner is comedian and Matilda songsmith Tim Minchin:
UK humans. 1day left to register to vote! https://t.co/T6NpUm5BR5. Have your say! (My conclusion, FWIW: leaving the EU would be insane.)
— Tim Minchin (@timminchin) June 6, 2016
As well as The Thick of It and Veep creator Armando Iannucci:
EU isn't pretty, but I fear the gleeful faces of Johnson, Gove, Farage, Fox, and Duncan Smith would be uglier still.
— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) June 6, 2016
The day in a tweet
Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, doesn’t think much of today’s Telegraph front page: “European criminals free to live in Britain”.
Well, except for about 1,200 each year extradited from the UK under the European Arrest Warrant. Hmm ... https://t.co/8vnP0Qcw0P
— Rob Wainwright (@rwainwright67) June 6, 2016
If today were a classic novel ...
It would be Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment – the twin themes for the campaigns today. Also, it’s long. Very long. Keep up, readers.
And another thing
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