Boris Johnson has posed 5 questions for David Cameron, mainly on migration and European integration, which InFacts is answering separately. But the Leave camp is faced by even trickier ones. Here are 6 questions voters needs answers to as the referendum campaign moves into its final 6 weeks.
Do you want to break up the EU?
This is one of Michael Gove’s ambitions. Vote Leave’s campaign chair hopes Brexit will lead to the “liberation” of Europe. After all, if the EU is really so terrible that we should leave, so should other countries. On the other hand, dismembering the EU would create economic mayhem in our backyard and leave Europe open to Russian mischief-making. The mere act of stating this as our goal will make our divorce bloody.
Should we blackmail the EU until it give us what we want?
Another of Gove’s bright ideas. He thinks we hold “all the cards” if we vote to Leave. But the threat would backfire horribly. The other EU countries would form a united front against us and be even less willing to give us good exit terms.
Would Albania be a good model for Britain?
Yet another Gove scheme. The snag is that Albania doesn’t have a “passport” for its financial services industry and has only limited access for services. Given that services account for about four fifths of our economy, this wouldn’t be a good model. What’s more, Albania was only able to get its limited access because it hopes one day to join the EU.
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Are you relaxed about eliminating our manufacturing industry?
Patrick Minford, a member of the pro-Leave Gang of Eight economists, wrote in The Sun in March that: “Over time, if we left the EU, it seems likely that we would mostly eliminate manufacturing, leaving mainly industries such as design, marketing and hi-tech. But this shouldn’t scare us.”
Will you close the Irish border?
Nigel Lawson said the Irish border would probably have to be closed post-Brexit. Otherwise, EU citizens would hop over from the Republic of Ireland, knocking a hole in the Brexiteers’ plan to end free movement of people. Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary who also backs Leave, said Lawson got it wrong. She said illegal EU migrants would be dealt with by the authorities. Forget for a moment that we are not good at tracking down illegal migrants. Even if we caught them and sent them home, all they’d need to do is jump on a plane to Dublin and cross the open border again to re-enter the UK.
Will you introduce visas for EU citizens?
Dominic Raab, the pro-Leave justice minister, has floated the idea of requiring visas from EU citizens after Brexit as a way of tightening up security. Such a move would hurt our economy, gum up tourism and almost certainly lead to visa requirements being imposed on Brits travelling to Europe in a tit-for-tat response. It would add little protection against terrorists coming from the EU, since we’d still need intelligence on who was trying to get into Britain and our former partners are more likely to have that than us.
The internal logic of Brexiteers’ positions should force them to give the answer “yes” to these questions. But if they come out and say “yes,” it’s doubtful that the voters would support them.
Hugo Dixon is the author of The In/Out Question: Why Britain should stay in the EU and fight to make it better. Available here for £5 (paperback), £2.50 (e-book)