It’s not been a great week for the In campaign in terms of ‘celebrity’ endorsements. On Tuesday Emma Thompson unexpectedly got the remain camp in the news when the Nanny McPhee actress explained that she was pro-EU because Britain alone is just ‘a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island’. They then seemed to have a royal endorsement after hacks thought Prince William hinted that he was a Europhile in a speech to the Foreign Office. Alas Kensington Palace were quick to put out a statement denying this was the case.
So the In campaign must have been hoping it would be a case of third time lucky on Question Time. June Sarpong — the Britain Stronger in Europe board member — appeared on the current affairs show to offer a pro-EU perspective on the panel. However, the former T4 presenter got off to a difficult start after clashing with Dragons Den‘s Theo Paphitis over what a Brexit would mean for UK employment:
JS: I care about the future and I don’t want to live in the past. I think that Britain is stronger in Europe for three reasons. The first reason is economically, we will be poorer if we leave Europe we will, because three million British jobs are linked with those who we trade with in the EU. So if we leave we could be putting those jobs at risk. That’s not project fear, that’s project truth.
TP: Can you justify that then? I need to be convinced
JS: Yes we can — those are government statistics
TP: No they’re not, no they’re not
JS: Yes they are, I didn’t just come up with them
TP: Well, who’s come up with three million job losses?
JS: The government
TP: They haven’t
JS: They didn’t say three million job losses, they said three million jobs are linked to our trade with other EU countries
TP: … and five million jobs in the EU are linked directly with the UK economy
Sarpong was regurgitating a 15-year-old estimate that 3m jobs are linked to exports sold to the EU. But demand for these goods is hardly dependent on our EU membership: they’ll still be drinking whisky after Brexit. As the NIESR acknowledged 16 years ago…
“there is no a priori reason to suppose that many of these [jobs], if any, would be lost permanently if Britain were to leave the EU.”
Nick Clegg tried this “3m jobs” line in 2011, and it was debunked at the time.
Sarpong then went on to offer insight into what cake she thinks best represents the UK:
‘I see Britain as a fantastic Victoria sponge. The one thing I am slightly anti-EU on is – as a pro-EU campaigner – I see far too many French tarts in our bakeries. Tatins.’
Alas her comments appeared to fall flat with viewers:
https://twitter.com/sebastianmlowe/status/700456574813401088
https://twitter.com/Sharkholio/status/700457403561680897
https://twitter.com/Lirzu/status/700458122012450817
Given that a poll — carried out by James Morris from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner — on the most trusted voices in the campaign found that Sarpong was trusted by a mere 19 per cent, BSE may wish to field a different spokesperson next time around.
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