EU referendum Debate : PM Cameron Branded 'Dodgy Dave'

   

The prime minister has been labelled “Dodgy Dave” and accused of messing up the country, during an EU referendum debate in which he sought to ease tensions within his party by hinting he would give Boris Johnson a cabinet job if Britain left the union.

David Cameron was grilled by audience members at BuzzFeed’s “town hall” event on Friday and faced questions about his former schoolmate and current Conservative colleague. “I don’t want this to look like the Dave v Boris show because that’s not actually what it is,” he said. But Cameron also used the event to make a veiled offer to Johnson, who some have touted as his replacement as prime minister in the event of Britain voting to leave the EU on 23 June.

“I’ve always said, without giving too much away, that I’m a believer in having all your stars on the pitch. Boris Johnson is a very significant figure in the Conservative party, he was a very effective mayor of London. Obviously, on this, I think he’s got it wrong and I don’t agree with him and I think it’s a dangerous course that we’d be taking. But, as a principle, I believe as a prime minister making a team, you want to have the strongest players you can in the team,” he said at the event, which was broadcast live on Facebook.

Cameron was also the object of a tirade from an audience member named Yasmin, who told him: “I’m voting remain but nothing to do with you guys, I hate the Tories and I’m just going to say you’ve fucked every fucking thing up in this country; you’ve screwed students, you’ve screwed the disabled, the vulnerable. I’ve heard that you want to take back the Human Rights Act and I could totally believe that, I wouldn’t put it past you at all, Dodgy Dave.”

Yasmin said she did not want to see the Conservative party given any more power because that would be the “worst thing for us right now”.

Cameron replied that the EU debate transcended normal party politics. “We’ve got the Labour party, a Conservative government, the Lib Dems, the Greens, the trade unions. We argue with each other, we’ve got a lot of differences on a lot of things. But, on this issue, we have the broadest possible coalition saying it’s better off, strong and safer to stay in.”

The Scottish National party and Ukip leaders, Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel Farage, also spoke at the event, as did the Conservative armed forces minister, Penny Mordaunt.

Farage urged Britain to get rid of “Dishonest Dave” if the country voted to leave the EU and choose a “Brexit prime minister” instead. The public does not have a vote on whether Cameron remains as prime minister after the referendum. Any such decision would rest with the Conservative party.

While Sturgeon said there would be consequences from leaving the EU, she said the UK does not “have to believe everything that comes out the mouths of David Cameron and George Osborne to vote positively and enthusiastically to stay in”.

Mordaunt was criticised over the leave campaign’s insistence on repeating the discredited claim that the UK sends £350m to the EU each week. But she said it was fair to say so and claimed that Britain’s contribution was akin to sending “a warship a week” to Brussels.