Brexit would spell the end of David Cameron and lead to a takeover by the hard right of the Conservative party, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has said.

In a high-risk strategy, Watson said the Tories running the leave campaign – Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel – would pose a greater danger dangerous to workers’ rights and public services than Cameron.



“It’s not just [Boris Johnson], it’s Michael Gove, it’s Priti Patel, it’s those people on the hard right of the Tory party that will be in government if there is Brexit. That is the end of David Cameron if that referendum is lost. They will be the people paring down the deficit, dealing with the cost of Brexit. It is not unreasonable that we focus on Boris Johnson.”

Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, added: “We are saying look at who is in charge of the Brexit campaign. These are people who are even more gung ho [than Cameron and George Osborne] about cutting workers’ rights, and I am tempted to say you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

They made their comments at an event flanked by Labour activists wearing Boris Johnson masks and handing out copies of a “Tory Brexit budget”, predicting a VAT rise, an end to child benefit and other financial consequences of leaving the EU.

The decision to tell Labour voters that Brexit could end Cameron’s career is risky because they might be keen to kick out the current government and take a chance on who might replace him.

Cameron has sought not to make the EU referendum about his premiership, insisting that he would stay on to lead negotiations in the event of Brexit, but it is widely believed he would face pressure to step down.

Labour has made a calculated decision that they need to gain the attention of their voters, given that polling suggests that up to half are unclear where the party stands on the EU.

In fact the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the entire shadow cabinet, more than 95% of its MPs and the major trade unions are all united in favour of staying in the EU.

There are particular concerns in the remain camp that Labour’s pro-EU message might be ignored by party voters who feel more concerned about immigration than workers’ rights or international efforts to tackle climate change.

Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, told the same event that immigration was “not what this campaign is about. Brexit will not make a difference.”

Separately, Andy Burnham said there was a “very real prospect” of Britain crashing out of the EU because the remain camp was failing to reach traditional Labour voters.



The shadow home secretary suggested the campaign needed to change its focus to appeal to voters in its northern heartlands rather than those in urban areas.

EU referendum live: 'very real prospect' of defeat for remain, says Burnham Read more

“We have definitely been far too much Hampstead and not enough Hull in recent times and we need to change that. Here we are two weeks away from the very real prospect that Britain will vote for isolation,” he told BBC2’s Newsnight on Thursday.

Burnham later clarified that he had not been criticising Labour’s campaign, but his comments echo worries that are widely held across the party.

A spokesman for Burnham attempted to row back on the comments on Friday morning, saying: “Andy Burnham’s comments have been misreported. He was answering a question about Labour in general being ‘a coalition between Hamsptead and Hull’.

“He repeated his longstanding analysis that Labour in the last two decades has been too London-centric.”

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, echoed Burnham’s points on Friday morning, saying the referendum was “in question” and arguing that Labour’s pro-EU message needed to be conveyed more strongly .

“So far not enough of our voters have heard we are for remain,” Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I want to say to Labour voters: this is not a midterm protest, this is not a super-byelection. I want to be in the EU because it will be better for social justice, better for workers’ rights and better to tackle climate change.

“We haven’t done enough yet. We’ve got to do more. The last general election – I thought that was important. This is even more important.”

He defended Corbyn’s stance of being sceptical about some of the EU while wanting to stay in, saying it was “close to the centre of gravity” on the issue.

Asked about immigration in the campaign, Miliband said: “Don’t crater our economy to try to deal with concerns about immigration. Look at what the independent experts are saying. Another two years of austerity. Right across the board they are saying it would be really bad for our economy.”

Two prominent Labour MPs, John Mann and Dennis Skinner, said on Thursday they would back the leave campaign. Mann said the EU was fundamentally broken and leaving was the only way to control immigration.

Skinner told the Morning Star: “My opposition from the very beginning has been on the lines that fighting capitalism state by state is hard enough. It’s even harder when you’re fighting it on the basis of eight states, 10 states and now 28.”

EU referendum morning briefing: what we learned from Sturgeon v Johnson Read more

The tax and spending thinktank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested that the economic instability that could follow a British exit from the EU would hit public finances.



Miliband and Cooper, who is also a former Treasury minister, will publish a report called Boris’s Brexit Britain, predicting that public services would be cut and workers’ rights undermined if a British exit enabled the former mayor of London to unseat David Cameron.

“Britain is at risk of being taken over by the far right of the Conservative party, and Labour communities will be the victims. It’s a Thatcherite agenda, really,” Cooper told the Guardian.

“The leave campaign are trying to perpetrate what I can only describe as a fraud on the British people,” Miliband will say, accusing Vote Leave campaigners of “trying to disguise themselves in Labour clothes”.

Cooper will unveil a provocative campaign poster featuring Johnson and Gove gambling in a casino alongside a cigar-toting Nigel Farage.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Britain Stronger In Europe poster featuring Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. Photograph: Britain Stronger In Europe

The image is aimed at closely linking the senior Conservatives Gove and Johnson with the more controversial – and remain campaigners hope, more toxic – figure of Farage, the Ukip leader.

In a live ITV debate on Thursday night, Amber Rudd, a Tory cabinet minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, and Angela Eagle, the Labour shadow business secretary, adopted this strategy as they launched a series of attacks on Johnson. Rudd said people should judge the leave camp by the company they keep with Farage, and claimed that the only numbers that Johnson cared about were No 10, suggesting he was after the prime minister’s job.

The chancellor, George Osborne, has taken a similar approach in recent days, as Britain Stronger In steps up its personal attacks on senior leave campaigners.

The chancellor singled out Farage on Thursday for representing a “mean-spirited, narrow and divisive” vision of Britain. He said this “tendency” was now coming to dominate the anti-EU campaign.

Speaking to reporters on a campaign visit to a Scottish farm with the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, Osborne said: “The Nigel Farage tendency is taking over their argument and you’re increasingly getting this Farage vision of Britain, with all this talk of bodies washing up on the sea shores and women being at risk of sexual assault from migrants.”