– Former adviser to PM says EU referendum is a LIFELINE from the sinking EU ship:
DAVID CAMERON’S former adviser has claimed the EU referendum is a lifeline to Britain from the “sinking ship” which is the EU.
Steve Hilton, the former director of strategy for the prime minister, also accused the Remain side of only citing experts because it suited them.
Mr Hilton has frequently criticised his former boss during the EU referendum campaign – and claimed Mr Cameron would support Brexit were he not prime minister.
He also branded some of the Remain campaign’s “scare stories” as “utterly ridiculous”.
The political strategist told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “It is clear that those who want to Leave the EU have won the economic argument.
“People, by big numbers, reject the scare stories about the economy doing badly if we leave the EU. “And they believe that the arguments on the other side, that economically, the EU is a sinking ship.
“What we have got in this referendum is a lifeline. To be our own country that forges our own way and succeeds in the world.”
Mr Hilton was quizzed by Robert Peston over why there was such an overwhelming consensus of economists and economic institutions backing Remain.
He replied: “Politicians like the experts that agree with them and don’t like the experts that don’t agree with them.”
Mr Hilton then said there was a consensus of experts who wished to see drug use decriminalised but that was not the government’s position.
Outlining his own vision for Britain, the 46-year-old said: “I have a vision of a Britain that is self-governing, that is a country where we can control the things that matter to us.” Formerly one of the prime minister’s most trusted advisers, Mr Hilton has made frequent interventions during the referendum campaign calling for Brexit.
He has also claimed the prime minister himself is a eurosceptic by “instinct” and would back Brexit were he not the leader of the country.
Mr Hilton told the Times last month: “If he was a backbench MP or a junior minister or even a Cabinet minister, he would be for Leave.
“That’s his whole instinct. That’s who he is. As Prime Minister he sees it from a different perspective.
“That’s perfectly reasonably but I think that if he didn’t have that perspective he would be for Leave.”
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