These so-called guarantees have been exposed as a collection of untruths, spin, and flip-flops by the Prime Minister.
David Cameron’s flip flop on Khan
Just a few weeks ago, David Cameron questioned Sadiq Khan’s judgement as he accused him of sharing a platform with an IS supporter. He said: ‘Anyone can make a mistake about who they appear on a platform with… but if someone does it time after time after time, it is right to question their judgement’. Yet today he shared a platform with Khan.
David Cameron’s flip flop on the European Arrest Warrant
David Cameron claimed today that one of the main benefits of voting ‘In’ is to keep the European Arrest Warrant. But in a previous article he argued that this policy was ‘stripping away’ centuries old ‘rights and safeguards’.
He wrote in 2001: ‘Are we really happy that with one telephone call from the Greek, Spanish or German authorities alleging that we did something wrong on holiday, we can be swept off to a continental prison? Rights and safeguards that we have enjoyed for centuries are being stripped away.’
Commenting, Douglas Carswell said:
‘David Cameron cannot be trusted. Just a month ago he attacked Sadiq Khan as a terrorist sympathiser, yet today he hailed him as a great politician as he stood next to him on a shared platform.
‘Today he trumpeted the benefits of the European Arrest Warrant but a few years ago he warned that it was dangerous and that it stripped away centuries old rights from the British people.
‘David Cameron’s flip flops show that he is not a man of principle – he is just desperate to cling on to power. He is only interested in saving his career not in what is best for the British people. People should not trust David Cameron.’
CAMPAIGN CLAIMS EXPOSED
In campaign claim 1: Full access to the EU’s single market: supporting 3 million jobs, lower prices for families and a strong economy to fund the NHS.
Reality: EU membership means higher prices. The independent House of Commons Library has concluded that EU membership increases the costs of consumer goods, stating that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy ‘artificially inflates food prices’ and that ‘consumer prices across a range of other goods imported from outside the EU are raised as a result of the common external tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade imposed by the EU. These include footwear (a 17% tariff), bicycles (15% tariff) and a range of clothing (12% tariff)’.
The ‘3 million jobs‘ figure has also been widely discredited. In 2000, Britain in Europe, the campaign to scrap the pound, claimed that 3 million jobs were ‘facing the axe’ if the UK left the EU. The academic whose work they traduced, Dr Martin Weale, dismissed the claim as ‘pure Goebbels. In many years of academic research, I cannot recall such a wilful distortion of the facts’.
In campaign claim 2: Workers’ rights protected: paid leave, parental rights, holidays and anti-discrimination laws.
Reality: Workers’ rights were secured by the UK Parliament – and in a democracy it is the duty of a sovereign parliament to protect them. Paid leave, parental leave and paid holidays are more generous in the UK than EU law requires. UK anti-discrimination legislation goes much further than EU law. The Sex Discrimination Act, guarding against sexual harassment in the workplace and the Employment Protection Act, supporting mothers with paid maternity leave, was introduced by the UK Parliament and were both introduced in 1975.
In campaign claim 3: Keeping the European Arrest Warrant: fighting crime and terrorism, bringing criminals to justice.
Reality: Even David Cameron doesn’t believe this. A 2001 article in the Witney Gazette quoted Mr Cameron as saying: ‘Are we really happy that with one telephone call from the Greek, Spanish or German authorities alleging that we did something wrong on holiday, we can be swept off to a continental prison? Rights and safeguards that we have enjoyed for centuries are being stripped away.’
In campaign claim 4: A special status in Europe: never joining the euro while keeping control of our borders, and new rules so EU nationals only have access to welfare once they’ve paid in.
Reality: A ‘special status’ is pure spin from Number 10: the term isn’t anywhere used in David Cameron’s renegotiation agreement. The EU’s own ‘Five President’s Report’ sets out plans for a Eurozone fiscal and ‘political union’, including ‘a euro area treasury’, and ‘further pooling of decision-making on national budgets’, with proposals for a new Treaty in 2017. The UK will be sucked in and eviscerated. In October 2015, the European Commission proposed a single Eurozone representative in the IMF. The draft Decision (on which the UK will not have a vote) provides that ‘close cooperation with non-euro area Member States shall be organised within the Council and the EFC, on matters related to the IMF. Common positions shall be coordinated on matters relevant for the European Union as a whole’.
Borders: As a member of the European Union, Britain has lost control over its borders. All EU citizens are automatically granted leave to enter the UK. The UK’s border controls are also under constant attack from the European Court of Justice. In December 2014, the European Court said that the UK cannot require family members of EU citizens from other EU member states to have a permit issued by UK authorities. This is despite the fact that a High Court Judge had found permits from other EU countries to be systematically forged, stating ‘Systemic abuse of rights and fraud calls for systemic measures’. The European Court’s rulings make it easier for terrorists and criminals to enter the UK using forged documents.
Welfare: EU nationals are able to claim jobseekers allowance after only 3 months in the country. EU nationals are able to claim full tax credits from day one if they are in work. Despite the Government’s claims, the UK will still be obliged to pay child benefit to children residing elsewhere in the EU. The renegotiation agreement states that proposed new legislation (which could be vetoed by the European Parliament or European Court after the referendum) could give member states ‘an option to index such benefits to the conditions of the Member State where the child resides’. This only applies to new claimants. The UK would only be able to extend it to existing claimants in 2020. In addition, the UK will still be obliged to pay non-contributory in-work benefits to EU migrants during their first four years in the UK.
In campaign claim 5: Stability for our country: protecting living standards and avoiding potential recession
Reality: The greatest threat to the economy is the prospect of Eurozone collapse. Article 122(2) of TFEU remains in force after the renegotiation. This means the Treaties still allow the Council of Ministers by qualified majority to ‘grant… Union financial assistance’ as part of ad hoc bailouts of the Eurozone.
Uncontrolled migration is already eroding living standards for Brits. A Bank of England study in December 2015 concluded: ‘the biggest effect is in the semi/unskilled services sector, where a 10 percentage point rise in the proportion of immigrants is associated with a 2 per cent reduction in pay’. This significantly affects British workers – especially those on low wages. On top of that, uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressure on housing and public services. Hospital waiting times are growing, and families are finding it harder to get their children into good schools.
At the current rate of migration we would need a new home every four minutes, night and day, just to house new immigrants and their families.
Cameron on Khan:
In April 2016 David Cameron said he was ‘concerned’ about Sadiq Khan’s decision to share a platform with a man he claimed ‘supports IS’:
‘If we are going to condemn not just violent extremism but the extremism that seeks to justify violence in any way, it is very important that we do not back these people or appear on platforms with them. I am concerned about Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, who has appeared again and again and again… the right hon. Member for Tooting (Sadiq Khan) has appeared on a platform with Suliman Gani nine times; this man supports IS… Anyone can make a mistake about who they appear on a platform with, and we are not always responsible for what our political opponents say, but if someone does it time after time after time, it is right to question their judgment’.
Cameron on the European Arrest Warrant
In his speech today David Cameron said:
‘Third is this issue of a safer Britain in Europe. I’ve been your Prime Minister for 6 years, I know we face big threats in terms of crime, in terms of terrorism. And of course the work of our police, the work of our intelligence services, they are vital for keeping us safe. But so is cooperation with our partners in the European Union.
‘Since we signed the European Arrest Warrant, 1100 criminals have been brought back to Britain to face justice. That used to take decades, now it happens in just weeks. All of us in London remember those 2005 attacks. One of those bombers, the July bombers, made it out of the country and got to Italy where he was arrested.
‘Before the European Arrest Warrant it would have taken years, possibly decades, to get him back to Britain. Now he’s sitting in a British jail having faced British justice. Who wants to give that up when we think of voting on June 23rd?’
But in an article in the Witney Gazette from 2001, David Cameron wrote:
‘Are we really happy that with one telephone call from the Greek, Spanish or German authorities alleging that we did something wrong on holiday, we can be swept off to a continental prison? Rights and safeguards that we have enjoyed for centuries are being stripped away’ (This is Oxfordshire, 17 December 2001).
