Senior Tory switches from Leave to Remain after accusing Brexit camp of spreading ‘hate and xenophobia’
But Vote Leave said they didn’t know Baroness Warsi was even on their side of the EU referendum
SENIOR Tory Baroness Warsi has switched from the Leave campaign to Remain after accusing some Brexit campaigners of spreading "hate and xenophobia".
With just days to go until the crucial June 23 vote she said a poster about migration from Nigel Farage had made her change sides – but Vote Leave said they didn’t know she was even part of their campaign.
The peer and former Foreign Office minister said: "That 'breaking point' poster really was - for me - the breaking point to say, 'I can't go on supporting this'.
"Are we prepared to tell lies, to spread hate and xenophobia just to win a campaign?
“For me that's a step too far."
Ukip leader Mr Farage spent the weekend defending the poster, which shows migrants queuing up to get into Europe under the slogan "Breaking Point", from accusations it is racist.
Lady Warsi spoke to the BBC about how it had affected her decision to switch sides this weekend.
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She told the Today programme: “To wake up on Sunday morning, to hear both Michael Gove continue to repeat the lies on Turkish accession to the EU.
“And Nigel Farage defend his indefensible poster, [it was] impossible to continue supporting leave.”
The ex-Chairman of the Conservative Party, who resigned from the Government in 2014 over its position on the conflict in Gaza, also defended herself from accusations she was never really part of the Brexit camp.
A number of anti-EU MPs and campaigners said they didn’t even know she was on their side, with Vote Leave tweeting: "Genuinely puzzled by Sayeeda 'defection'.
“We weren't aware she was ever part of the #VoteLeave campaign..."
And MP Nadhim Zahawi posted: "Been part of the leave campaign from start. I had no idea that @SayeedaWarsi was part of the leave campaign.
“News to all of us me thinks."
But a tweet from Lady Warsi on 7 June shows her support for Leave.
She wrote: "For those of us committed to @vote_leave this unholy alliance between small minded little islanders & optimistic hello worlders is a strain!"
She told the BBC: “I was making the case to leave long before Vote Leave had ever been formally established.
“The last time I openly spoke for Brexit was about five weeks ago.”
But she added: “Those moderate voices have now been stifled.
“People like me who are deeply Eurosceptic feel like they now have to leave leave.”
And speaking to The Times she said support for Brexit from the far right and the tone of the Leave campaign had caused her to rethink the nature of the UK outside of Europe.
She said: "I look at that group of people and I think they're not the kind of people I'd get on a night bus with.
“Why would I want them to run my country?
"I don't want the Leave camp to be running this country and I don't want the messages coming out of that camp to form the basis of the kind of Britain that I want to live in and to bring my kids up in."
