“Boris Johnson urged voters to make the EU referendum Britain’s ‘Independence Day’ tonight as he was involved in brutal clashes with Sadiq Khan and fellow Tory Ruth Davidson in a crunch TV debate. With less than 36 hours left until the polls open, Mr Johnson laid into the Remain side for ‘talking the country down’ by issuing a slew of dire Project Fear warnings about the consequences of cutting ties with Brussels. But newly-installed London Mayor Mr Khan hit back by accusing him of telling ‘lie after lie’ and running ‘Project Hate’, while Scottish Conservative leader Ms Davidson lashed out at him for trying to turn the programme into ‘the Boris show’” – Daily Mail
>Today:
“Tuesday evening saw the final TV debate of the EU referendum campaign and there was a clear winner: Ruth Davidson. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives…is well-liked in political circles north of the border — now the rest of the country was able to witness it. She did what David Cameron has struggled to do: appear genuinely pumped up about voting In and make people feel good about it” – Sebastian Payne, Financial Times
“‘Nobody knows what is going to happen,’ he says, sipping coffee from an ‘In’ mug in his Downing Street study. But he…insists he has no regrets about calling the EU referendum back in 2013, although in reality his hand was forced by increasingly restive Tory MPs… ‘If not now, we would have to have this [vote] in the future’” – interview with Financial Times
“If you believe in the sovereignty of this country, its monarchy, its unwritten constitution and its judicial system; if you believe in the will of the people and don’t want to be ruled by faceless bureaucrats; if you are concerned about uncontrolled immigration; if you wish to control the destiny of the UK; if you want a government you can vote for and in turn vote out of office if it breaks its promises; and if you believe in Britain, its culture, history and freedoms, there is only one way to vote. Brexit” – Daily Mail editorial
“Sir, We own and run more than 1,200 businesses, from micro companies to the FTSE 100, employing more than 1.75 million people. We know our firms are stronger in Europe. Our reasons are straightforward: businesses and their employees benefit massively from being able to trade inside the world’s largest single market without barriers” – Letter from 1285 business leaders to The Times (£)
“While Buckingham Palace has rightly deplored the impropriety of disclosing Her Majesty’s private remarks, the Palace has been careful not to define her views, nor to deny that her sympathies might, on occasions, like those of many of her subjects, have veered towards Brexit. ‘Give me THREE good reasons,’ she has, apparently, been asking her dinner companions recently, ‘why Britain should be part of Europe?’” – Robert Lacey, The Daily Beast
“Infighting has broken out in the Remain campaign after pro-EU Apprentice boss Lord Sugar said a Brexit campaigner should not ‘tell us British what we should do’ because she is from Germany. He was attacking Labour MP Gisela Stuart, who is from Bavaria and moved to Britain in 1974 and was representing the Brexit camp in the last major TV debate before Thursday’s referendum. James McGrory, the spokesman for the official Britain Stronger In Europe campaign, said his remarks were ‘utterly unacceptable’” – Daily Mail
“The people voting for the Leave option…would have a right to expect that if they win they are winning for more social protection for themselves and their families, for less corporate power, for more democracy and fewer immigrants. Yet if Britain were to go down such a path, the strongest Leave supporter would surely acknowledge that Brexit would be an economic disaster. The politics of leaving go one way, and its economics go the other” – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (£)
“Jo Cox’s widower has said the MP was murdered for her strong political views… Brendan Cox, 37, said his wife, who would have celebrated her 42nd birthday today, was anxious that the ‘tribal’ tone of the EU referendum debate had been whipping up fears and hatred. His comments came as a Conservative councillor in Yorkshire was suspended from his local party for a crude Facebook message about Mrs Cox” – The Times (£)