David Cameron faced claims today his campaign was churning out dodgy dossiers and bullying the voters into backing EU membership.
Writing for today's Daily Mail, Iain Duncan Smith delivered a devastating attack on the 'spin, smears and threats' being issued by the Government machine.
Senior MP Liam Fox today warned the party would have to come back together and govern after the June 23 poll - but hinted the Prime Minister would have to quit if he lost.
Iain Duncan Smith, left, attacked the 'spin, smears and threats' being deployed by the Government machine to 'bully' Britain into remaining inside the EU, while Liam Fox warned the party had to come back together in June
David Cameron had to deny a 'conspiracy' to keep Britain in the EU at a press conference with Francois Hollande in France yesterday, pictured
Brexit ministers, including Mr Duncan Smith, have repeatedly insisted Mr Cameron would be able to stay on - but Mr Fox, seen as a potential future leader - today warned this was only the 'constitutional' position.
Today's row comes a day after Mr Cameron was accused of orchestrating a bitter row over whether the French would tear up a bilateral borders agreement and move the Calais 'jungle' camp to Kent.
At a press conference with French President Francois Hollande yesterday, Mr Cameron was forced to deny there was a 'David Icke-style conspiracy' to keep Britain in the EU.
Mr Duncan Smith warned of lasting damage to British politics beyond the June 23 referendum if Mr Cameron and the other leading players in the Remain camp do not conduct the debate in a more ‘respectful manner’.
Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘After all, such desperate and unsubstantiated claims are now being made that they begin to damage the very integrity of those who make them in the eyes of the public.’
In a series of so-called dodgy dossiers, the Government has set out a nightmarish Brexit scenario which could lead to ‘a decade or more of uncertainty’, destroy trade and even stop Britons holidaying around Europe. Mr Duncan Smith said this ‘bullying’ campaign was designed to distract attention from the fact Mr Cameron had secured no meaningful reform to the EU.
He points out that, at his Bloomberg speech in 2013, the Prime Minister himself had said that staying in an unreformed Europe would make the country weaker.
Mr Fox today insisted the claims were all 'nonsense'.
He told the BBC: 'The whole point behind Project Fear is it has to be credible.
We need to have some credible stories, we need to have some credible statistics and the sort of cases we’ve had that you’ll not get cheap flights, children’s books won’t get published, you’ll not be able to be rescued if you’re stranded abroad – this is all nonsense.”
He insisted the Tories were not yet at the point where unifying on June 24 was impossible.
But the former defence secretary said: 'I do think that it’s at all points we need to say ‘let’s make the arguments in a responsible, reasonable way’.
Mr Fox repeated his warnings on Twitter today and at a speech on the fringes of the Scottish Conservative Party Conference
'Let’s not make them in a way that will make our lives more difficult afterwards. The country will require government, the Conservatives will be the majority party, we do not want to make our own lives more difficult.'
Asked if Mr Cameron could stay in Downing Street if the Brexit camp win, Mr Fox said: 'Yes, constitutionally, of course.
'I’ve been saying for a long time to my colleagues they need to understand the binary nature of a referendum, the fact it will arouse a lot of passions.
'In fact I’d said to a number of my colleagues that in a referendum friendships get tested, relationships can sour.'
In his Mail column, ex-Tory leader Mr Duncan Smith argues that, given EU reform has not been achieved, Mr Cameron’s own logic should point the country towards the exit door.
In one of the post powerful interventions in the EU debate so far, he said: ‘Ask yourself this: with razor wire fences going up in mainland Europe due to fears of unsustainable levels of migration, with the failing euro creating economic misery for Europe’s poorest people, with high unemployment and economic stagnation, is this a set up you would seek to join?’
His comments reflect growing anger among MPs and ministers in favour of leaving the EU at the Government’s tactics. Senior figures say the country is being denied the mature debate the country was promised by the PM.
On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond triggered fury by claiming that Out campaigners are secretly content to ‘sacrifice’ British jobs in order to regain control of our borders. He was also accused of ‘scaremongering’ over claims two million UK citizens living in the Costa del Sol and elsewhere in the EU could be forced to return home.
Time to halt the smears spin and threats: IAIN DUNCAN SMITH
Two weeks after the Prime Minister returned from Brussels with his EU deal, the debate on the European Union has shifted significantly. The Remain campaign's case seems almost wholly based on what they describe as the nightmare of leaving. This case has in whole or in part become characterised by spin, smears and threats.
This was not what we were told the debate would be about and so for those keen to stay in the EU I register a concern and also a challenge.
In the last fortnight we have had a series of highly questionable dossiers – threatening almost biblical consequences if we dare to consider a future outside of the European Union.
We've seen a series of stunts, whereby big businesses, big banks, and powerful politicians from other EU member states seek to bully the British people into believing their jobs and security are at risk. The impartiality and integrity of the civil service – on whose credibility the whole institution of Government depends – has even been called into question by Parliament.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions warned of lasting damage to British politics beyond the June 23 referendum if PM David Cameron (pictured) does not conduct the EU debate in a more 'respectful manner'
The acrimonious manner in which all this has been conducted is troubling, and will I fear have consequences long beyond June 23. After all, such desperate and unsubstantiated claims are now being made that they begin to damage the very integrity of those who make them in the eyes of the public.
The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate departure, but from those who denounce such thinking as heretical and dangerous.
WE MUST LEAVE THE EU TO ESCAPE THE RED TAPE, BUSINESS CHIEF WARNS
The head of one of the biggest groups representing small and medium-sized firms came out in favour of leaving the EU yesterday.
In a strident attack on the Prime Minister's 'deal' with Brussels, British Chambers of Commerce director general John Longworth, right, said the EU remains 'essentially unreformed' and is 'incapable of meaningful reform'.
He added the risks of staying in such a club were 'as daunting' as leaving, telling the Daily Mail: 'I have analysed the facts personally and my view is we should leave.'
The intervention is a bruising setback for David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, who are desperate to get business leaders to back the In campaign.
Mr Longworth, a former executive at Tesco and Asda, said the Prime Minister's deal with Brussels 'fell far short of our expectations'.
He warned that staying in an unreformed EU would leave Britain 'sitting on the margins' as the eurozone integrates further.
Saying the UK would have a 'brighter economic future outside the EU', he urged business leaders to look beyond any short-term disruption and think about the future they want for their children and grandchildren.
Mr Longworth also pointed out that by 2010, European red tape was costing British business £80bn a year. 'Since then there has been major costs added by Europe,' he said.
'The one thing that Sajid Javid [the Business Secretary] cannot do anything about is European legislation and that is where the bulk of the burden is coming from.'
His comments, at the annual conference of the BCC in London, make Mr Longworth the first leader of a major business group to take on the Prime Minister over the referendum.
Unlike the pro-EU Confederation of British Industry, which is seen as the voice of 'big business' and was a supporter of Britain joining the euro, the BCC represents 75,000 small and medium-sized businesses with millions of staff across the country.
This is the most important question we have faced in a generation, and it is vitally important that the debate is conducted in a respectful manner – where we maturely interrogate the issues, rather than indulge in scaremongering.
And so that brings me to the challenge.
In January 2013, the Prime Minister made an excellent speech, setting out his vision for a reformed European Union. He made a powerful case for 'fundamental, far-reaching change' – without which he said the EU 'would make our countries weaker not stronger'.
Now, I know that the Prime Minister entered the negotiations with good intent. He said at the time that 'with courage and conviction, I believe we can deliver a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union'.
The problem was that he was faced with the final reality that the EU is disinclined to make such fundamental reform.
Now there will be some people who will have believed from day one that we should stay in the Union regardless, and others who may have wanted to leave irrespective of any changes that might have been secured.
However, the original referendum challenge set by the Prime Minister was not predicated on whether we wanted to remain in the EU or not – it was whether we wanted to remain in a 'reformed EU'. That is a vital distinction and one which is now being deliberately avoided.
After all, the Prime Minister said himself that the case for staying in was conditional on achieving reform. So for those who are undecided, surely the paramount question that they will want to answer for themselves is whether the European Union that we now have is reformed or not.
If they arrive at the conclusion that it has not, then it would be quite logical for them to decide that Britain would be better served Out.
Perhaps that's why the terms of the debate seem to have been shifted by the Remain camp. They no longer seek to pretend the Prime Minister's deal amounts to fundamental reform.
Instead, the question being asked seems to be whether we could cope on our own at all. Why they would seek to present our country, and themselves, as so weak is beyond me.
But ask yourself this: with razor wire fences going up in mainland Europe due to fears of unsustainable levels of migration, with the failing euro creating economic misery for Europe's poorest people, with high unemployment and economic stagnation, is this a set up you would seek to join?
If the answer is no, then we as a country should have the confidence that, as the fifth largest economy in the world, we can have a more prosperous and more positive future if we take control of our own destiny.
We should not be intimidated into forgoing that choice.
Indeed, as the Prime Minister himself said in that same 2013 Bloomberg speech: 'Of course Britain could make her own way in the world, outside the EU, if we chose to do so.'
Some people are now determined to make out that if Britain were to leave, all the potential scenarios would be perilous. If that really were the case, wouldn't it have been deeply irresponsible for the same people to have put the question to the British people in the first place?
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