The campaign to exit the European Union is “something of a peasants’ revolt” coming from the UK’s grassroots, a senior Tory Eurosceptic said.
Former defence secretary Liam Fox said, in contrast to this, the campaign to remain in the EU “looks like the elite, the establishment” with funding from the Goldman Sachs investment bank.
Dr Fox accepted there would be “risks to leaving” if the country votes to quit the EU on June 23, but he argued there are “huge risks” to staying in.
But he dismissed suggestions that a vote for “Brexit” would spark a second independence referendum in Scotland.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly warned demand for another vote on independence could be “almost unstoppable” if Scotland votes to remain within the European Union but the UK as a whole opts to leave
Dr Fox, speaking at a Conservatives for Britain fringe event at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh, accused the SNP of “sabre rattling” and said: “It certainly doesn’t follow that a vote to leave the EU as a whole will trigger another independence referendum.”
Support for Europe is falling north of the border, he claimed, at the same time as backing for Britain to leave has grown, with 29% of Scots undecided.
The Tory MP said: “Of course there are risks to leaving, but there are huge risks to staying and I think we need to be rational about it and simply embarking on wilder and wilder scare stories that increasingly bear little relation to reality is not a smart way, it’s going to turn voters off at a time when voters are desperate to get information.”
Speaking about those who want to stay in the EU, he said: “I think the remain campaign increasingly looks like the elite, the establishment.
“It is funded by Goldman Sachs, supported by the European Commission and by a number of organisations who have been well funded themselves by European money.
“It seems to me a better way of characterising it for the leave campaign, it has something of a peasants’ revolt about it, and it is coming up from the grassroots of the country, where people are saying we don’t want to be told that the issue of migration and taxation are irrelevant.
“If you are in the south east of England, for example, you will have seen a great deal of migration and it’s very difficult for local authorities to plan for school places, it’s very difficult for the NHS to know how many doctors are required, how much housing is required. That really does matter to people in a way that may not matter to those who are very good buddies with Goldman Sachs.”
He insisted the UK would not become isolated if the out campaign was successful.
Dr Fox said: “If we leave the EU the next day we will still have a permanent seat on the Security Council of the UN. We will still be at the heart of the Commonwealth, we will still be one of the world’s top 10 economies. We will still have the world’s fifth biggest defence budget, we will still be members of the G7 and the G20, we will still be one of the key players in Nato with a special relationship with the United States.
“This is no isolation. This is no leap in the dark.”
He told the audience he is Eurosceptic because “I believe this nation state should be able to govern itself and control its won borders without interference from authorities outside our borders”.