Boris Johnson is too clever to believe Brexit is a good idea and is using the referendum to advance his leadership ambitions, Diane Abbott claimed in an exclusive interview yesterday.
“Boris is too intelligent to say we’d be better off out of Europe, it’s tactical”, she told the Hackney Post.
“Boris is advancing his career, he’s trying to set himself up to be the next leader of the Tory party”.
Demographics
Abbott, who is at odds with Boris Johnson over the EU referendum said Boris’ decision was specifically made to appeal to older voters who would be more likely to vote to leave.
“Boris is in touch with a certain demographic but that tends to be a certain type of people”, she said.
She said the challenge for the Remain campaign would be to persuade people to turn out to vote: “the challenge for us is that the older people that are anti-EU are more likely to vote than the younger people who are pro-EU”.
Boris backs Brexit
The London Mayor’s pledge to support Brexit little over a week ago came less than 24 hours after David Cameron announced his EU reform deal.
Announcing his decision last week Mr Johnson said: “The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the government.”
“I want a better deal for the people of this country.”
Business
Abbott said she didn’t think the EU vote would have much of an impact on the upcoming mayoral elections.
However, she said that being pro-EU “put Sadiq in a strong position with business in London because clearly from the point of view of business it’s important we stay in.”
Hackney, the borough Abbott represents, is the 8th most pro-EU area in the UK, according to recent research by YouGov.
A nationwide referendum to decide whether the UK remains in the EU will take place on 23rd June 2016.
