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Today in audio: Gove’s case for Brexit

Michael Gove has been making his case for Brexit and doing his best to knock the stuffing out of the ‘remain’ campaign. He started the day on the Today programme, spelling out why he thought Britain was best off outside the EU. In his pitch to the nation, he said:

‘I want us to vote to leave the European Union before it’s too late, because that’s the safer choice for Britain. If we vote to stay, we’re not settling for a secure status quo, we’re voting to be hostages, locked in the back of the car, driven headlong towards deeper EU integration.’

The Justice Secretary then gave a speech later in the day in which he put forward in greater detail why he thought the opposite side in the EU debate are treating the electorate like children. He said:

‘The ‘in’ campaign want us to believe Britain is beaten and broken, that it can’t survive without Jean Claude-Juncker. It treats people, I’m afraid, like children: unfit to be trusted and easily scared by ghost stories.’

Unsurprisingly, Michael Gove’s intervention resulted in the usual ding-dong between those on both sides. Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said Gove’s case for Brexit was ‘unfounded’ and ‘untenable’:

Chuka Umunna also hit out at Gove. Speaking on the Daily Politics show, the Labour MP said ‘Leave’ was ‘conjuring up a conspiracy’:

And Alan Johnson had some advice for Michael Gove, telling him to take a leaf out of Churchill’s book:

He did have some support, however, from fellow Eurosceptic Dominic Raab, who said Gove had set out the ‘positive vision outside the EU’:

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