Former British Prime Minister John Major took aim at Brexit proponents, calling their campaign squalid, underscoring how rattled the "Remain" campaign is after a series of polls showed a narrowing margin over "Leave".
Major dismissed former London Mayor Boris Johnson as a court jester in his defence of Britain's European Union membership in a BBC television interview. The ferocious debate has split the Conservative Party down the middle, with the fates of Johnson, Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne tied to the outcome of the June 23 referendum.
Polls show the race tightening in the past week, spooking some investors who had bet that "Remain" was on course to prevail. A poll published in the Observer showed "Leave" ahead by 43 per cent to 41 per cent. Today, bookmaker Ladbrokes Plc said that support for the 'Leave' camp has showed no signs of slowing down.
"Leave" proponents have begun "to feed out to the British people a whole galaxy of inaccurate and frankly untrue information," Major said.
"What they have not done is to tell us what would be the position if we get a vote to leave. I think it would be chaotic and damaging, and I think the people who would suffer the most would be the ordinary man and woman in the street."