The Daily Telegraph has come out in favour of Brexit. It is running a leading article in its Tuesday issue calling on Britons to vote to leave the EU in Thursday’s referendum.
In so doing, it is supporting its columnist Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of the campaign urging Britain to quit.
It is also in line with the sympathies of its readers. Two weeks ago, a poll of its own subscribers found that 69% said they were planning to vote for Brexit.
The Telegraph’s stance aligns it with other papers that have declared for the leave campaign: its stablemate, the Sunday Telegraph plus the Sun, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express.
Papers that have announced support for remain include the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Mirror.
The Telegraph’s 2,000-word long editorial accuses “the Remainers” of trying to scare the public “into believing that calamity lies in wait for an independent Britain”.
It argues that “a world of opportunity is waiting for a fully independent Britain”, not least because it is “a leading economic power”.
Contending that “across Europe, disenchantment with Brussels is growing”, the paper says: “Those who dismiss the referendum here as some British eccentricity whipped up by Little Englander Europhobes need to ask why the EU is so unpopular elsewhere.
“The principal reason is its anti-democratic nature – the dislocation between those who govern and the governed … The fact that the EU is a collection of democracies does not detract from the reality that this is a profoundly undemocratic institution.”
The Telegraph also attacks the prime minister, David Cameron, registering its dismay “with the way his campaign has been conducted, especially in besmirching his opponents and impugning their motives”.
It concludes: “We are told it is a choice between fear and hope. If that is the case, then we choose hope … On Thursday, the country has another opportunity to lift the clouds. We must take it.”
