Brexit debate shouldn't be a stick to beat Tory government with | Michael White

Frank Field suggests Labour voters should choose leave to give the PM a bloody nose but such tactics are hugely shortsighted

Frank Field, the veteran Labour MP, made a startling claim the other day in support of his longstanding antipathy to the EU. “If you want to have a pop at the government don’t wait until the general election,” he advised Labour-voting readers of the Times. Vote for Brexit on 23 June, he suggested, and give David Cameron “a punch on the nose”.

It must be a tempting thought on day one of the “official campaign” – it’s apparently been a bad tempered phoney war up to now – when a Telegraph poll reports a closing gap and many Labour voters still don’t know their diffident party’s position.

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