David Cameron faced tough questioning on immigration and accusations of scaremongering on Thursday night during the first major televised event of the EU referendum campaign.
During an hour-long live broadcast on Sky News, a mostly hostile audience challenged the prime minister on his claims about the risks of Britain leaving the EU.
Mr Cameron acknowledged that he sometimes found the EU frustrating but he said that, if Britain was not a member, he would want to join on the terms he negotiated with other EU leaders last February.
He repeatedly brought the discussion back to the economy, saying it would be impossible to stop freedom of movement from the EU without leaving the European single market.
“There are good ways of controlling migration and there are bad ways,” he said. “The answer is not to leave the single market, harm our economy, hurt jobs and damage our country.”
Pressed on his failure to keep an election promise to reduce annual net migration from the EU to the tens of thousands, the prime minister said that the figure would come down as European economies continued to recover.
He claimed the reduced access to benefits for EU migrants he negotiated in Brussels would also help to cut numbers.
“If you come to our country, you don’t claim unemployment benefit and if you don’t have a job after six months you have to leave. I think we should welcome the fact that people want to come to our country, work hard and make a contribution,” he said.
The programme began with a robust interview by Sky News political editor Faisal Islam, who poked fun at the prime minister's warnings about the negative impact of Brexit. "Which comes first, World War III or the global Brexit recession?" he asked.
European war
The audience laughed but Mr Cameron, who pointed out that he never actually referred to World War III, defended his claim that weakening the EU could make the prospect of another European war more likely.
He said he often thought about the history of bloodshed in Europe in the 20th century when he attended EU meetings in Brussels.
“When you’re there, you never forget that 70 years ago these countries were fighting each other, I don’t think we should forget that. The EU has been a way to get countries that used to fight each other to talk to each other.
“Twice in a century Europe went to war and on both occasions Britain had to be part of that conflict and we paid a very, very high price,” he said.
Damaged reputation
A number of audience members repeated the accusation of scaremongering, with one man suggesting that Mr Cameron had damaged his reputation by the way he has conducted the referendum campaign.
“This is not about scaring anybody. I’m genuinely worried about what happens if we leave,” the prime minister said.
Despite the hostility of parts of the audience, some of whom heckled and interrupted his answers, Mr Cameron remained calm and good-natured throughout.
He remained firmly on message, introducing the economic argument at every opportunity and casting a vote to remain in the EU as an expression of British confidence.
“Are we quitters? Do we think we quit the EU, we quit the single market and somehow we will be better off? Absolutely not,” he said.
Justice secretary Michael Gove, who is leading the Leave campaign, will be quizzed in the same format on Sky News tonight and Mr Cameron and Ukip leader Nigel Farage face questions on ITV next week.
