The fight over Britain’s future in Europe intensified yesterday as Downing Street claimed Brexit could lead to migrant camps springing up in south-east England “overnight”.
Number 10 said leaving the EU could free thousands of migrants in Calais to travel to the UK and create tent cities.
The comment came as David Cameron suggested withdrawal from the EU might also undermine the UK’s co-operation with European partners, prompting accusations of “scaremongering” from Out campaigners.
Downing Street claimed France could tear up the 2003 Le Touquet agreement which requires checks on cross-Channel lorries and trains to be carried out on French soil.
And Mr Cameron raised the prospect that British withdrawal from the EU may put border co-operation over terrorism and organised crime in doubt.
But Eurosceptic former defence secretary Liam Fox said he was “sad and disappointed” to see the PM “stoop to this level of scaremongering”, while fellow Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston accused Mr Cameron of “taking voters for fools”.
Ukip’s migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said the warning was “based on fear, negativity and a falsehood” that the deal was connected to Brussels rather than a bi-lateral agreement between Britain and France.
A Number 10 spokesman said it was a “perfectly feasible scenario” that quitting the EU could result in Paris ending co-operation over border checks and “thousands of asylum seekers pitching up in south-east England effectively overnight”.
The prime minister is currently trying to convince other European leaders to get behind the draft reform deal published by European Council president Donald Tusk last week.
It sets out plans for an “emergency brake” on benefits for migrant workers, as well as measures to give national parliaments more power to block EU laws.
The proposals pave the way for an in/out referendum in June, but they must first be agreed by all 27 other national leaders at a crunch Brussels summit on February 18-19.