ALEX Salmond has urged the Remain side to “leave the scaremongering behind and make the positive case” for Britain staying in Europe or it could face defeat on June 23.
In the first TV debate in the EU referendum campaign before a BBC audience of young voters in Glasgow, the former First Minister criticised both sides for “dividing Project Fear between themselves” with the Treasury fearmongering on the economy and the Leave side on immigration.
Stressing how he did not believe George Osborne’s “apocalyptic” vision of what Brexit would do to Britain, the Gordon MP, arguing for the Remain camp, pointed out how in the Scottish independence campaign the Yes side began at 28 per cent and ended up at 45 per cent by accentuating the positive.
“The Remain campaign can’t afford to lose one per cent a month otherwise they will lose over the next four weeks,” declared Mr Salmond.
“To win a campaign, to motivate people, you’ve got to argue a positive case; leave the scaremongering behind.”
But the moderator, Victoria Derbyshire, pointed out Project Fear won in 2014, telling Mr Salmond: “It works. You lost.”
The former FM’s comments came just days after Nicola Sturgeon, his successor, warned the chancellor to drop his “fear-based campaigning”.
Much of the debate was focused on migration with passions raised in the audience over the issue of housing and the shortage for first-time buyers.
Liam Fox, the Conservative former Defence Secretary, arguing for Leave, stressed that the key issue was not about stopping immigration but controlling it. “If you have an uncontrolled figure, you put pressure on public services.”
Diane James, the deputy chairwoman of Ukip, also arguing for Leave, said: “If we can’t control the number of people, if you can’t control demand because you can’t control supply, you are forever in a spiral downwards.”
She linked the migration issue to the NHS and the desire to have qualified doctors in Commonwealth countries coming to Britain to fill vacancies but who were being denied entry to the UK.
“Why not have someone from the Commonwealth who speaks our language?” she declared. This sparked a quizzical response from Remain supporters in the audience. Mr Salmond interjected: “If I wanted a qualified doctor, then a qualified Lithuanian, Danish, French one would do just fine.”
Earlier, the issue of migration dominated the In-Out debate with the publication of new figures, showing a 10,000 yearly net increase to 184,000 in people moving from the EU to the UK.
In the TV exchanges, Ms James made clear she did not accept that some on the Leave side's focus on immigration had been "appalling".
She argued there had been a focus on “migration” and “on the basis that that's one very clear example where the UK government…actually don't have control over a key aspect of our economy".
Asked whether travel across Europe would be affected by a vote to leave, Dr Fox said: "Europe and exchange and trade and travel existed before there was a European Union and will continue after."
But Alan Johnson, the former Labour home secretary arguing for Remain, countered by saying: "There are 2.5m tourists who come to Scotland every year. How are we going to differentiate between the Polish plumber and the Polish tourist? It means surely, a system of visas."
Dr Fox insisted it was "not beyond the wit of man" to allow free travel for tourists but demand visas for those who wanted to work.
Asked whether visas would indeed be required for European travel in the event of Britain voting for Brexit, Ms James replied: "We just don't know," noting how David Cameron had not published a Plan B.
Meantime, a question was asked about the prospect of a second independence referendum if Scotland voted to stay in the EU and the UK voted to leave.
Mr Salmond suggested that such a poll would happen within the two-year period Scotland would use to negotiate its membership of the EU.
Asked if the Yes campaign would win in such circumstances, the former SNP leader replied: “In the circumstances of Scotland being threatened or dragged out of the EU against our will the result would be Yes this time.”
But Dr Fox noted how Ms Sturgeon had said the 2014 vote was a “once in lifetime” opportunity. He pointed out: “I have never been sure about what the SNP didn’t understand about the result. The Scottish people voted to stay in the United Kingdom.
“That’s very important on the EU point because our membership of the EU is a decision we take as the United Kingdom and that’s why in the referendum every vote counts the same; we don’t count them in constituencies or districts, every vote is the same whether it’s in Stornoway or St Ives.
“It’s a decision for all the people of the UK. We should take it on the merits of the EU debate and we should not be sidetracked into yet another fear campaign about the Scottish referendum,” he added.
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