George Osborne Tells Leave To ‘Tone Down Rhetoric After Jo Cox’

Chancellor George Osborne has used the death of Jo Cox MP to demand Brexit supporters use more “facts” and less “divisive political debate” seconds before comparing UKIP to the Nazis and reasserting his discredited doomsday predictions for the economy.

“Look, first of all, I hope because of the tragic death of Jo [Cox] we can have a less divisive political debate in our country,” he said on ITV this morning.

“And, particularly in the last few days of this referendum, we can have less baseless assertion and inflammatory rhetoric and more reasoned argument and facts,” he added.

Then, in the same interview, he went on to say that UKIP and Nigel Farage’s “breaking point” poster was “disgusting and vile”, and had “echoes” of 1930s Nazi propaganda – himself echoing writers in the Guardian and a trades union boss, Dave Prentis of Unison, who reported the poster to the police for “inciting hatred”.

Yet even fellow Conservative MPs were shocked at how the Chancellor had so bluntly and shamelessly used the good name of the late Ms. Cox for political capital, just 48 hours after her death.

Mr. Osborne said UKIP were “whipping up concerns, whipping up division, and making baseless assertions that millions of people are going to come into the country in the next couple of years from Turkey.”

Adding: “That is what we should say no to. And, this referendum vote is a vote on the kind of Britain we want… do we want a meaner, narrower Britain that is poorer in every sense of the word?” he asked.

“For the remaining days [of the campaign], the people who are undecided in this referendum do want to hear the reasoned arguments and they want to hear the facts,” he also said.

Adding: “And, I think it’s important for people to understand that if we vote leave there is no turning back. It’s a one-way door to a much more uncertain world where people’s jobs and their livelihoods are at risk.”

George Osborne’s idea of “reasoned argument” and “facts” — presented in the past week — include his widely mocked doomsday predictions for a post-Brexit economy, based on figures from an “independent” organisation mostly funded by the European Union (EU) and British government.

His so-called ‘Brexit emergency budget’ was slammed by dozens of MPs in his own party, who promised to vote it down, as it was effectively using his power to threaten voters with punitive cuts and tax rises if they choose to vote against him.