The Out campaign's propaganda is nasty and false - but it's working

The Independent’s shock poll showing a majority in favour of quitting Europe should be a wake-up call to David Cameron and business leaders who oppose Brexit that they have to get out of first gear.

Those supporting the new isolationism have already begun their campaign. They have been delivering pictures of a bossy-looking Angela Merkel with lips turned down and eyes narrowed telling British voters that she is now dictating orders to the British prime minister.

Once again a German bogey is being used to increase dislike of Germany and the rest of Europe by isolationist forces in Britain.

It was all the more odd as the European Union is paying for this Germanophobe propaganda since the leaflet was published by the European Parliament on behalf of a group of MEPs led by Nigel Farage of Ukip, which includes a former MEP from the far-right French National Front party as well as other MEPs from rabidly anti-foreigner and Europhobe parties in Europe.

The leaflet contained the usual lie that 70 per cent of laws are made in Europe. The House of Commons Resarch Library can never find more than 8-9 per cent of primary legislation emanating from the EU.

Moreover, it urged control of national frontiers – “to control who comes to live and work here, we have to leave the EU.” That is not a lie but any such policy will impact on the estimated 2 million Brits who live, work and retire without hindrance abroad in Europe.

Others can deal with the lies about Europe but what matters is that already the isolationists are out of the starting block with their propaganda.

The real question is when do the anti-isolationists get their boots on and start a campaign of truth about what Britain leaving Europe would do to our economy and our status in the world.

David Cameron seems frozen as he realizes just how hostile to Europe the 21st century Conservative Party has become. He has had to reduce his so-called renegotiating demands to the bare minimum. Boris Johnson called at the Conservative Party conference last month for Britain to regain control of its frontiers and for the House of Commons to be able to veto or repudiate any EU directives or laws.

That is not on offer and the idea of any single EU national parliament imposing its veto on EU developments would have stopped dead Margaret Thatcher’s Single Market achievements.

Labour remains pro-European but with the party now on just 27 per cent in the polls since Jeremy Corbyn’s arrival, and with many of its working class votes transferred to Ukip, it cannot save Britain from an isolationist vote.

The Lib Dems are out of play as pro-Europeans shudder at the thought of Nick Clegg urging a Yes vote in the referendum. Business outfits like the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Institute of Directors still waffle about conditioning their support for defeating the isolationists only if the EU is “reformed”. Their leaders know there is no chance of a new legally-binding Treaty arriving before the 2020s.

Meanwhile the hedge funds and City tycoons who did well out of the casino capitalism of recent years pour money into the Out or Leave campaigns, into Ukip, or the Eurosceptic think tanks like Open Europe, whose former director, Matts Persson, sits as a Swedish Svengali in Downing Street, advising David Cameron on how to handle Europe.

The Merkel leaflet paid for by the European Parliament is the first shot in what will be a vicious and openly xenophobic campaign by the isolationists. David Cameron’s plebiscite is likely to be held within 12 months. Those opposed to isolationism have yet to leave their tents and join the fight.

Denis MacShane is Labour’s former Minister of Europe and author of Brexit: How Britain Will Leave Europe published by IB Tauris