The Brexit vote is running neck-and-neck for both sides – with the remain campaign slightly in the lead.
As the referendum campaign hots up for the vote on June 23, lead Leave campaigner Boris Johnson has faced a barrage of claims that he is a liar from his rivals in the stay camp.
In a bad-tempered TV debate, Johnson blustered as even his own supporters claimed he was only leading the leave campaign because he had ambitions to lead the Tories and sit in No 10 Downing Street.
He countered that the debate should not concentrate on personal issues, but on the hope that Britain would prosper if voters followed his advice and pulled out of Europe.
This was after Tory MP Sarah Wollaston abandoned the Vote Leave campaign because she says Boris Johnson’s claim that Britain sends £350 million a week to the EU was a lie and she could not stand by as he repeated the claim knowing he was misleading voters.
Johnson misleading voters
The statistic is painted on the side of Johnson’s battle bus in which he is touring the country.
Johnson has talked up the statistic even though rivals, economists and think tanks argue the figure is misleading.
They say Johnson is only quoting the net outflow and not including any money the UK receives from Europe, which gives a net figure going to Brussels of £160 million a week.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd told Johnson the claim was ‘fantasy’.
She accused him of ‘perpetuating misinformation and a con’.
Defeated leader Ed Miliband and other Labour stalwarts are pleading with their party to turn out and vote in favour of remaining in Europe.
Labour mobilises stay support
They are concerned Labour’s low key campaign so far means vast numbers of their supporters are unaware that the party is pro-Europe and want to raise the profile to mobilise voters.
In the latest poll of polls, published in the Financial Times, the Remain campaign is nudging ahead of the Leave campaign by just 45% to 43%.
A more recent YouGov poll makes the gap even narrower at 45% to 44% in favour of staying in the EU.
However, the same publisher says a week-long poll with more than 35,000 entries online returned a 71% to 27% result to leave the EU.
