David Cameron has warned voters that leaving the EU was the “last thing the economy needs” and would be a vote for recession. Speaking at an event in his own Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, the Prime Minister said that “economic security” was the single most important thing for people to consider.
He said none of the arguments for Brexit were “able to counter the immediate and sustained hit that we would suffer to our economy” if the UK left the EU.
Addressing voters on the biggest day of campaigning yet, dubbed Super Saturday, Mr Cameron said: “If we vote to leave on 23 June we will be voting for higher prices, we will be voting for fewer jobs, we will be voting for lower growth, we will be voting potentially for a recession. That is the last thing our economy needs.”
Britain Stronger In Europe is staging 1,000 events across Britain with leaders of four parties all out in action.
While Brexit campaigners are staging what they described as a nationwide “blitz”, Boris Johnson was in Bristol on his continued battle bus tour.
Mr Cameron said that the referendum was “more important than a General Election” and the “chance for a generation of a lifetime”.
He anchored his speech firmly around the economy, citing warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, London School of Economics and Confederation of British Industry on the perils of Brexit and telling people it would be “really misguided” not to listen to them.
And he hit home on the Treasury’s own figures, which say families will be £4,300 if the UK votes out of the EU.
It comes as Sky Data suggests the economy lags behind immigration as the greatest concern of undecided voters.
The poll showed 29% of voters were undecided and of those, 28% said immigration was the greatest concern – just 15% said the economy.
Separately, Mr Cameron also warned that leaving the EU would mean Britain would no longer benefit from £16bn of investment by the European Investment Bank.
The money has been used to fund projects such as part of the East Coast Main Line, the extension to the M8 motorway and research and teaching facilities at Oxford University.
It comes as figures show that German investment in the UK in the first quarter of the year had dropped by 6%.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be appaling to voters to remain in the EU at a rally in London later.
Although he and Mr Cameron find themselves on the same side in this argument, Mr Corbyn will use his speech to attack the Conservatives, telling people that responsibility for the country’s problem “lies in 10 Downing Street, not in Brussels”.
There has been mounting concern over signs of traditional Labour voters becoming increasingly hostile to the EU.
Former Conservative minister and Out campaigner, Owen Paterson, will tell a rally in Chester: “If we vote to remain, we will be consigning ourselves to being a colony of an EU Superstate, with more integration and increasingly diminished British influence.”