Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s close friend and former director of strategy, said Britain would be better off cutting ties with the EU, hitting back at suggestions that leaving the bloc would trigger an economic collapse.
Love or hate him #EUreferendum must be about policy not personality & @SteveHiltonx makes compelling case 4 #Brexit https://t.co/1X0u67der7
— David Spencer (@dspencer47) May 23, 2016
"The bottom line on the economic argument is that no one really knows. It’s clearly ridiculous to claim that it’s settled in either direction; there are risks whatever we do," he wrote in British tabloid, the Daily Mail.
PM's closest friend in politics, Steve Hilton, says we must quit the "literally ungovernable" EU. That's the crux, economy vs independence
— steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) May 23, 2016
Hilton, who has personal experiences in dealing with the EU, also attacked the level of control held in Brussels.
"As long as we are members, our country cannot be 'run.' Membership of the EU makes Britain literally ungovernable, in the sense that no administration elected by the people can govern the country," he wrote.
"[The EU has] become so complicated, so secretive, so impenetrable that it’s way beyond the ability of any British government to make it work to our advantage."
Post-Brexit Security Concerns 'Astonishing'
In defiance of Cameron, Hilton shot down the PM’s claim that the UK would face a security crisis, if it left the bloc.
"The idea that a British prime minister can't protect Britain properly without the EU is frankly astonishing and, if true, rather alarming," Hilton wrote.
He also took aim at "the arrogant and dismissive treatment of Britain’s relatively modest demands in the 2015/2016 negotiations," saying that it showed:
"…the EU is just not interested in anything other than superficial change."
While acknowledging the potential risk involved with leaving the bloc, Hilton said cutting ties with the EU was "the ideal and idealistic choice for our times: taking back power from arrogant, unaccountable, hubristic elites and putting it where it belongs — in people's hands."
Steve Hilton's on the EU — "A stinking cesspit of corporate corruption gussied up in the garb of idealistic internationalism". Indeed.
— Ben Kelly (@TheScepticIsle) 23 May 2016
Opinion polls have suggested the June 23 referendum will be a closely fought vote, with support largely split between the Remain and Leave camps.
