Labour In campaign chief Alan Johnson has compared Brexit campaigners to US presidential hopeful Donald Trump as he warned a vote to quit the European Union (EU) could see the UK raise its barriers.
Campaigning in Glasgow with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, the former home secretary faced questions on remain campaign scare tactics over a Treasury report claiming pensioners would lose thousands of pounds if the UK votes to leave the EU.
He said: “You get this kind of accusation of Project Fear from people who say there will be 75 million Turks gathering at our border if we vote to stay, so it works both ways.
“I think it’s right of the Treasury, and others, to point out the effects of a damaged economy and that effect will be on pensions.
“There’s another dimension for pensions as well. If you are thinking about free movement, the people who come over here under free movement, by and large, are younger, they pay more in taxes than they take out.
“They are helping to solve a very important problem which you never hear talked about now, which is the dependency ratio.
“When state pensions were introduced there were about 10 people working for every person retired. Now there’s four and by 2050 there will be two.
“The taxes of people working today pay the pensions of people who are retired today. That is a very important factor.
“If we somehow just put a wall around this country, which you sometimes listen to people on the leave side as if they were Donald Trump, and you didn’t allow these young workers to come, you would have a very serious problem for the economy.
“So, it’s a big problem in two ways for pensioners if we vote to leave.”
Mr Johnson appeared on a televised EU debate on Thursday where former first minister Alex Salmond claimed Scotland would vote for independence within two years if the UK votes to leave the EU in next month’s referendum.
Asked if holding a second Scottish referendum would be fair in the event of a Brexit vote, Mr Johnson said: “I’m focused on a referendum on June 23. That’s enough referendums in one go for me.
“This is above party politics in a sense. This is the most profound political decision of my lifetime and if Alex Salmond is telling people to vote remain, then that’s good enough for me.”
He added: “The leave side just don’t know what going to happen. They don’t know what’s going to happen on the economy, they don’t know what’s going to happen on trade and they don’t know what’s going to happen on immigration.”
