UK Brexiteers grab limelight, three weeks before EU vote

LONDON: Anti-EU campaigners in Britain seized the initiative Friday, ahead of June 23's referendum, with a leading advocate slamming "unelected, unaccountable elites" and UKIP's leader vowing to lead a Brexit flotilla up the Thames.

Michael Gove's grilling on Sky News television, in which he attacked the "invincible arrogance of Europe's elites", came 24 hours after Prime Minister David Cameron, who is campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union, endured a bruising encounter on the same channel.



Gove is justice minister in Cameron's government and was one of his closest allies before announcing he would join the "Leave" campaign.

"I think it's time that we said to people who are incapable of acknowledging that they've ever got anything wrong: 'I'm sorry, you've had your day,' Gove said.

"Unelected, unaccountable elites, I'm afraid it's time to say you're fired. We're going to take back control."

Facing questions from a studio audience after being interviewed by Sky's political editor, Gove had a couple of awkward moments.

One questioner compared "Leave" campaigners like him and former London mayor Boris Johnson to British World War I generals leading soldiers into battle without knowing what they were facing on the other side.

But Gove's performance drew wide praise from pro-Brexit figures and some commentators.

"Terrific, calm performance from Michael Gove. In a different league to the Prime Minister," wrote anti-EU UKIP leader Nigel Farage on Twitter.



Political commentator Iain Dale added on the social media platform: "If there was a share market in Goves, you'd be buying them tonight".

Earlier, Farage said he would join a 60-boat procession which will sail up London's River Thames to the Houses of Parliament on June 15 in a protest organised by campaign group "Fishing for Leave".

"It will be big, visual and dramatic, and the demand will be clear -- we want our waters back," he told LBC radio, arguing that Britain's fishing industry was in decline because of European Union quotas.

The announcement came amid another busy day of campaigning by both sides ahead of the vote in 20 days' time.

At an event with finance minister George Osborne, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said leaving the EU could put at risk some of the US bank's 16,000 jobs in Britain.

A joint letter signed by HSBC chairman and chief executive Douglas Flint and Stuart Gulliver, PwC chairman Ian Powell and BT Group chief executive Gavin Patterson among others also warned of the risk to the services sector.

Cameron visited a brewery to make the case for staying in after facing a more hostile reception than the lower profile Gove during his Sky appearance Thursday evening.



The referendum vote remains on a knife-edge according to the pollsters.

The "Remain" campaign currently has 51 percent support compared to 49 percent for "Leave", according to an average of the six last opinion polls by the What UK Thinks academic project which excludes undecided voters.

Academics believe this figure could be as high as 20 percent.

Meanwhile, the election regulator said thousands of EU citizens who are not eligible to vote in the referendum had received polling cards and postal votes due to a software glitch.

The Electoral Commission said it had found 3,462 ineligible electors had been affected but added none of their votes would be counted even if submitted.