David Cameron might have emerged virtually unscathed from his first major EU referendum showdown last night. But the focus in much of the press coverage today is not on the Prime Minister. Instead, the anger and hostility of those in the audience leads most of the round-ups in the morning papers of how Cameron got on in the Sky debate. His ‘scaremongering’ was repeatedly mocked. He was also laughed at over his ‘WW3’ Brexit suggestion by those watching. This was ‘Project Fear’ on trial. So what did the papers make of it all?
The Prime Minister’s failure to put a date on when he would meet his promise to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands is the focus in The Times. Given how important immigration is becoming as a topic in the EU referendum – and also the extent to which the leave campaign are now focusing on the issue – the PM is unlikely to be pleased with a headline which suggests he simply doesn’t know when his target will be met: ‘I don’t know when we will meet migration target, says Cameron’. There’s no doubt that whilst Cameron’s performance last night was fairly solid and avoided any major howlers, this kind of coverage will be a big boon to those trying to persuade the public to back Brexit. What’s more, given that the PM has called leaving the EU a ‘step in the dark‘, confessing his own ignorance over a topic as important as this one is likely to be damaging.
One of the low points of David Cameron’s showing in the TV debate was when the audience bellowed with laughter when he was quizzed about his supposed warning that Brexit could trigger World War Three. That fury was the focus in The Sun, which reported how the PM faced an ‘hour-long grilling’ which it also referred to as an ‘ordeal’. The article goes on to say that his attempts to make his case were ‘repeatedly hijacked by a studio audience of inners, outers and waverers frustrated by his campaign tactics’. The image painted is of a Prime Minister rattled by the backlash to the way the case for Remain has been handled.
And it’s a similar picture in the Telegraph, which tells how David Cameron was ‘savaged’ by the audience. The fury and anger of those watching the PM is also the main focus here. But, interestingly, the paper suggests that the PM could actually welcome the hostility directed at him, suggesting that it might be an echo of Blair’s ‘masochism strategy’ in the buildup to the Iraq War. The theory goes that by allowing a vent for common frustrations over the EU to be released, voters’ anger should be placated. That’s the hope anyway.
In the Daily Mail, the focus is on the ‘mauling’ received by the Prime Minister during the TV debate. Whilst much of the coverage here highlights the anger of the audience, Cameron will be pleased that his final closing summary has also made it into the piece. His warning to voters to ‘look our children (and) our grandchildren in the eye’ before casting a vote for Brexit could cut through to those sitting on the fence.
Whilst rather unusually for a Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron will probably be best pleased with the Guardian round-up. The article focuses largely on his plea to the audience not to ‘roll the dice’ by voting out of the EU. The hostility of the telly audience is also mentioned here, but the Prime Minister will be glad that at least some of what he had to say – rather than just the scorn of the audience – has cut through.
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