EU Question Time: PM attacks 'untrue' Leave claims

                                 

The referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU or leave takes place on Thursday.

David Cameron has urged people not to vote in the EU referendum on the basis of what he said were "completely untrue" claims from the Leave campaign.

The PM dismissed warnings over an EU army, the prospects of Turkey joining and the cost of the UK's membership.

In a special edition of Question Time, he said the UK would be "a quitter" if it voted to leave.

Vote Leave said the PM "just doesn't have the answers" and that people "do not believe him any more on the EU".

Leave campaigners say Turkey's bid for EU membership could trigger a sharp rise in migration to the UK under free movement rules.

Asked at the question and answer session in Milton Keynes whether he would use the UK's veto to prevent Turkey joining, the PM said: "I do not think it's going to happen for decades so as far as I am concerned that question simply doesn't arrive."

The PM said Leave's controversial claim that £350m a week is spent on EU membership "isn't true" and that a European Army - which prompted a former defence chief to switch to the Leave campaign at the weekend - was "not going to happen".

"I am sure there are arguments for leaving" he said, but added that it would be a "tragedy" if the UK voted to leave on the basis of "three things that are completely untrue".

Tom Bateman, BBC political correspondent said, the PM strode to the stage with what looked like a single sheet of notes - perhaps because the message he wanted to get across was succinct.

It could be summed up as "listen to the experts" because a vote to leave would be "irreversible".

Leave campaigners say the free movement principle makes it impossible for the UK to control its borders.

Mr Cameron said controlling immigration had been "difficult" because "lots of people want to come to this country".

But he said there was "no silver bullet" and that leaving the EU and the single market was "not the right way to control immigration".

If the UK votes to leave, he said, "that's it, we are walking out the door, we are quitting - we are giving up on this organisation".

"I do not think Britain, at the end, is a quitter," he said.

He said Winston Churchill did not "quit on Europe" during World War Two, adding: "You can't fight if you're not in the room".

Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said Mr Cameron had "repeatedly refused" to say he would veto Turkish EU membership, saying he had previously said he backed Turkish membership.

The campaign group also pointed out that according to the official Government website, the British Embassy in Ankara has a 'dedicated team working on projects to improve Turkey's prospects of joining the EU'.

Mr Elliott added: "Cameron had no answers to people's legitimate concerns on immigration tonight and failed to set out how he would meet his manifesto pledge to bring the numbers back down to the tens of thousands while remaining in the EU. He had no answer on how we would fund the NHS to cope with higher levels of immigration.

"He has avoided speaking to the British public throughout the campaign because he knows that they do not believe him anymore on the EU."