Cameron warns Brexit would hit pensions, NHS and defence

UK Prime Minister David Cameron warned that pensions and the National Health Service could face cuts if the country votes to leave the European Union.

In a series of newspaper articles, Cameron warned that ring-fencing future NHS funding could be at risk, while chancellor George Osborne said that the armed forces could see their budgets slashed by £1-1.5 billion a year as the wider economy shrunk.

Cameron told the Sunday Telegraph that a Brexit victory would put “a black hole in our public finances of between £20 billion and £40 billion” and that ministers would have to re-examine pensions.

“We’ve made a special effort to protect pensioners,” he said, citing the ‘triple lock’ system through which says that state pensions will rise in line with earnings, inflation or by 2.5%, whichever is higher, and the protection of bus passes.

“We did all this in the expectation of a growing economy. But if we had a big black hole, we could struggle to justify this special protection any longer. In fact, even if we could justify it morally, it wouldn’t actually be affordable.”

He also told the Observer that “our ability to ring-fence and protect spending on health could be at risk”.

“This is the cold reality of leaving the EU – that’s why doctors, nurses and the boss of the NHS all say that we will be stronger, safer and better off in the EU,” he wrote.

Osborne warned that Brexit would lead to “a new dose of austerity” and “more years of public spending cuts”.

“If you look at the numbers, the defence budget would have to be cut by between £1bn - £1.5bn,” he wrote in the Sun on Sunday. “It’s the last thing I want to do because I want the country to stay in the European Union, but if we leave the EU Britain is smaller and so Britain’s armed forces will be smaller and that means fewer planes and ships and personnel to defend us. So it is both a hit to our national economic security but also our national security.”

Pro-Brexit former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith lashed out at his party leader for his “vindictive and desperate attempt to bully and frighten the British people.”

“This is a baseless threat. The truth is that these are policy choices and the Conservative manifesto said that protecting pensioners was a priority. It is now apparent that there is nothing they will not use or jettison in their efforts to keep us in the EU.”

Meanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby declared that he will be voting for the UK to remain in the EU on 23 June, arguing that Britain should be a “country for the world”.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he warned against “succumbing to our worst instincts” over immigration and said that he vote to stay in the EU to avert economic damage that could harm the poorest in society.