Brexit Referendum: Wembley Arena ....The Final Debate Showdown

The Vote is on Thursday, What will it be?  Almighty United Kingdom of Great Britain  , Northern Ireland and Elizabeth R or good ole little england





Ruth Davidson and Sadiq Khan challenge Boris Johnson during Tuesday night's referendum debate

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, accused Boris Johnson of “Project Hate” as the Remain campaign delivered its most effective counter-attack so far on the issue of immigration.

In a BBC debate at Wembley Arena, the Brexit representatives — Mr Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stuart — were repeatedly pushed on to the back foot on immigration, widely seen as their strongest suit.

“They’ve had a slogan in this campaign. They’ve had a poster in this campaign. But they don’t have a plan for managing immigration,” said Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives and the debate’s most assured performer.

Two days before the vote, pollsters have said that the outcome remains uncertain, with previously undecided voters potentially key. However, a senior figure in the Remain campaign reported “cautious optimism” and that the argument was shifting in its direction.

The BBC event — the last big television set piece of the campaign — frequently descended into grandstanding, with soundbites receiving ample applause from sections of the 6,000-strong audience.

They reacted restlessly when Ms Stuart would not commit the campaign to lowering the number of people arriving in the UK and when Ms Leadsom would not promise to return £600,000 in donations received from a former member of the far-right British National party.

The most highly charged exchanges featured Ms Davidson mocking Mr Johnson, her party colleague. She referred to Vote Leave’s warning about Turkish immigration, saying that Mr Johnson himself had conceded in March that Turkey's membership of the EU was not “on the cards”. “What’s changed in two months?” she asked.

Faced with Ms Leadsom and Ms Stuart’s frequent references to their status as mothers, Ms Davidson joked: “I have to remind people at home that there are mums and dads on this side of the argument as well.” Mr Johnson won copious applause of his own, accusing the Remain campaign of “Project Fear” and asking the audience to make Thursday “our country’s independence day”.


But at Wembley, the Remain representatives — Mr Khan, Ms Davidson and TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady — managed to turn the focus on to allegedly misleading campaign material from Vote Leave. In a previous encounter on ITV, the three Leave campaigners had performed strongly with their consistent message of taking back control and their emphasis on British sovereignty.

Mr Khan held up a leaflet suggesting that Syria and Iraq would soon share a border with the EU, while Ms Davidson criticised a claim that 60 per cent of the UK’s laws were made in Brussels. “It’s not good enough. You deserve the truth,” she told the audience.

The killing of Jo Cox, the Labour MP, was not mentioned during the debate. In a side discussion, Diane James, the deputy leader of the UK Independence party, claimed that the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, had apologized for a poster featuring Syrian refugees and taken the ad down following Ms Cox’s death. In fact, Mr Farage has defended the poster, which remains on the party’s Twitter feed.