The EU referendum is looming, but the biggest fight at present is not between the two sides of the argument but the different ‘out’ factions. Only one campaign can get the official Electoral Commission designation, which is leading to some rats-in-a-sack behaviour from Leave.EU and Vote Leave, made worse by the launch of Peter Bone’s Grassroots Out group. The problem for the two sides, who are both calling each other names, is that they have to demonstrate to the Electoral Commission that they are the group that ‘represents to the greatest extent those campaigning for the outcome’, and this includes setting out ‘how you plan to represent other campaigners for the same outcome including how you would engage with them’. Currently, both sides can demonstrate a great deal of engagement, but not much of it is positive.
All this bickering allows the ‘Remain’ side to look as though it is getting on with the actual campaign. On Monday, the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign started sending out four-page A3 colour leaflets called ‘Europe and You’ which lists the benefits of the EU to the region where it is being delivered. These leaflets are going out by post to ‘more than 10 million’ homes, which will be hugely costly for the campaign, at least six figures. This suggests that the campaign is well-funded, and doesn’t need to rely on volunteer networks.
Vote Leave boasts that one of its strengths is that it has a strong volunteer network, and the campaign had a number of street stalls in towns across the country at the weekend. But BSE also claims it has a strong ground operation, and has recruited campaigners in every region to sign up volunteers.
But this arms race between the different sides still pales into insignificance compared to the fight between the Out camps. They need to attract donors, and ministers who are prepared to lead their cause politically, too. Given the scrapping, you can understand why few Cabinet Ministers are keen to drop hints about which campaign they’ll back.
Comments