The danger of Michael Gove’s vague optimism

After yesterday’s furore over Treasury warnings about exactly what Brexit will cost British families, today it’s Michael Gove’s turn to hit back. The Justice Secretary is set to accuse the Government of ‘treating voters like children who can be frightened into obedience’. It’s extraordinary just how quickly the war of words seems to be intensifying, given that there are still more than nine weeks to go until the actual referendum. But is there a danger that all this noise is just going to switch off voters to the actual arguments being made? Michael Gove did his best this morning to make a clear-cut case for ditching the EU after being given three minutes on the Today programme to argue for Brexit. He accused those campaigning for Britain to stay in of making a ‘deeply pessimistic’ and ‘negative’ argument. Countering it, he said:

‘I want us to vote to leave the EU before it’s too late because that’s the safer choice for Britain.