‘Brexit’ Vote Splits British Political Duo Prime Minister David Cameron and former London Mayor Boris Johnson trade barbs over EU referendum; ‘one for the birds’ By Jenny Gross
http://www.wsj.com/articles/continental-divide-brexit-vote-splits-british-political-duo-1465617783
LONDON—British Prime Minister David Cameron and former London Mayor Boris Johnson have a lot in common. Two years apart in age, they attended the same boarding school, the same university, then entered Parliament together. Their odd-couple alliance—Mr. Cameron is refined and on message, Mr. Johnson, tousled and hip-shooting—helped their Conservative Party last year win its first general election in more than two decades.
Thirteen months later, they are at each other’s throats. The reason is Britain’s divisive June 23 referendum on whether it should remain a member of the European Union.
Mr. Cameron, 49 years old, is spearheading the push to persuade Britons to vote to remain, asserting that Britain would face economic peril if it detached from Europe. Mr. Johnson, 51, is leading the campaign to exit, or so-called Brexit, with a sharp-tongued assault on Brussels, which he says saps Britain’s sovereignty and burdens it with regulation.
Their rivalry flared in February, when Mr. Johnson informed his longtime friend and party leader Mr. Cameron, by text message moments before making his decision public, that he would support the exit campaign. Since then, both men have infused their campaign rhetoric with barbs about one another.
Mr. Johnson attacked Mr. Cameron’s case for staying in the EU as “baloney” and dismissed the prime minister’s monthslong negotiation to secure concessions from other EU leaders as having achieved “two-thirds of diddly squat.”
Mr. Cameron has accused Brexit campaigners of “resorting to total untruths” and of “literally making it up as they go along,” and has suggested Mr. Johnson is motivated by personal political ambition.
There is a deep divide within the U.K. over whether the country should cut its 40-year-old ties with Europe, as represented by the tussle between the two conservative lawmakers. The pro-EU side say a vote to leave would cause havoc to the economy and create years of uncertainty as the U.K. renegotiated international trade agreements. CONTINUE AT SITE
Comments are closed.
